Newcastle University

A number of animal species collect and store food for later consumption.  Many of these species hide individual food items in different locations, a behaviour called "scatter hoarding".  The study of these species has, over the past 30 years, provided new insights into a range of scientific disciplines: from the study of plant dispersal to the study of how and why the brain generates new nerve cells in adulthood.  Recently, Dr. Tom Smulders of the Centre for Behaviour and Evolution at Newcastle and Dr. Vladimir Pravosudov of the University of Nevada at Reno have edited a volume of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B on this topic.  In this volume, world experts in the field summarize the contributions made to science by the study of food-hoarding behaviour.

For more information on the volume in question, please visit the following website:

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/site/2010/food_hoarding.xhtml