Small mammals feeding on hypogeous fungi

Małgorzata Połatyńska

doi:10.2478/fobio-2014-0006

Authors

Małgorzata Połatyńska University of Lodz, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, Department of Algology and Mycology

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/fobio-2014-0006

Keywords:

mycophagy, fungivory, spore dispersal rodents

Abstract

Fungi serve as a food source for a wide variety of animals. Among mammals, most species feed on fungi occasionally or accidentally while foraging for other type of food, but some species are frequent mycophags and fungi can be a dominant component of their diet. Examples of mycophags can be found among marsupials: wallabies and bettongs; and rodents: squirrels, chipmunks, voles and mice. Hypogeous fungi produce closed, underground sporocarps without opening mechanisms, and thus are unable to release their spores into the air. In case of those fungi, animals feeding on sporocarps and spreading spores in their faeces are considered to be the main vector of spore dispersal. Animals that frequently feed on fungi and other heavy digestible food have developed morphological adaptations such as longer gut retention and a spiral construction of the proximal colon, to digest more fungal material which is rich in nitrogen. The spores stay viable after passing through the animal gut, and in some cases their ability to germinate and form mycorrhiza is enhanced after leaving the intestine. Hypogeous fungi are mycorrhizal partners for plants and it is therefore possible that the interactions between mycorrhizal fungi and animals spreading their spores also play an important role in ecosystem functioning.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Bertolino, S., Vizzini, A., Wauters, L.A. & Tosi, G. 2004. Consumption of hypogeous and epigeous fungi by the red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) in subalpine conifer forests. Forest Ecology and Management, 202: 227–233.
Google Scholar

Cazares, E. & Trappe, J.M. 1994. Spore dispersal of ectomycorrhizal fungi on a glacier forefront by mammal mycophagy, Mycologia, 86: 507–510.
Google Scholar

Claridge, A.W. & Lindenmayer, D.B. 1998. Consumption of hypogeous fungi by the mountain brushtail possum (Trichosurus caninus) in eastern Australia. Mycological Research, 102: 269–272.
Google Scholar

Claridge, A.W., Trappe, J.M., Cork, S.J. & Claridge, D.L. 1999. Mycophagy by small mammals in the coniferous forests of North America: nutritional value of sporocarps of Rhizopogon vinicolor, a common hypogeous fungus. Journal of Comparative Physiology B, 169: 172–178.
Google Scholar

Colgan, W., Carey, A.B., Trappe, J.M., Molina, R. & Thyssel, D. 1999. Diversity and productivity of hypogeous fungal sporocarps in a variably thinned Douglas-fir forest. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 29: 1259–1268.
Google Scholar

Colgan, W. & Claridge, W. 2002. Mycorrhizal effectiveness of Rhizopogon spores recovered from faecal pellets of small forest-dwelling mammals. Mycological Reseach, 106: 314–320.
Google Scholar

Cork, S.J. & Kenagy, G.J. 1989. Nutritional value of hypogeous fungus for as forest-dwelling ground squirrel. Ecology, 70(3): 577–586.
Google Scholar

D’Alva, T., Lara, C., Estrada-Torres, A. & Castillo-Guevara, C. 2007. Digestive responses of two omnivorous rodents (Peromyscus maniculatus and P. alstoni) feeding on epigeous fungus (Russula occidentalis). Journal of Comparative Physiology B, 177: 707–712.
Google Scholar

Danks, M.A. 2012. Gut-retention time in mycophagous mammals: a review and a study of truffle-like fungal spore retention in the swam wallaby. Fungal Ecology, 5: 200–210.
Google Scholar

Drożdż, A. 1966. Food habits and food supply of rodents in the beech forest, Acta Theriologica, 11: 363–384.
Google Scholar

Fogel, R. & Trappe, J. 1978. Fungus consumption (Mycophagy) by small animals. Northwest Science, 52(1): 1–31.
Google Scholar

Hanson, A.M., Hodge, K.T. & Porter, L.M. 2003. Mycophagy among Primates. Mycologist, 17(1): 6–10.
Google Scholar

Hilario, R.R. & Ferrari, S.F. 2011. Why feed on fungi? The nutritional content of sporocarps consumed by buffy-headed marmosets, Callithrix flaviceps (Pimates: Callithrichidae), in Southeastern Brazil. Journal of Chemical Ecology, 37: 145–149.
Google Scholar

Johnson, C.N. 1996. Interactions between mammals and ectomycorrhizal fungi. Tree, 11(12): 503–507.
Google Scholar

Kataržyte, M. & Kutorga, E. 2011. Small mammal mycophagy in hermiboreal forest communities of Lithuania. Central European Journal of Biology, 6(3): 446–456.
Google Scholar

Lee, W.B. & Houston, D.C. 1993. The role of coprophagy in digestion in voles (Microtus agrestis and Clethrionomys glareolus). Functional Ecology, 7: 427–432.
Google Scholar

Lehmkuhl, J.F., Gould, L.E., Cazares, E. & Hosford, D.R. 2004. Truffle abundance and mycophagy by northern flying squirrels in eastern Washington forests. Forest Ecology and Management, 200: 49–65.
Google Scholar

Ławrynowicz, M., Faliński, J.B. & Bober, J. 2006. Interactions among hypogeous fungi and wild boars in the subcontinental pine forest. Biodiversity: Research and Conservation, 1–2: 102–106.
Google Scholar

Mckeever, S. 1964, Food habits of the pine squirrel in northeastern California Journal of Wildlife Management, 28: 402–403.
Google Scholar

Steinecker, W. & Browning, B.M., 1970. Food habits of the western gray squirrel. California Fish and Game 56: 36–48.
Google Scholar

Trappe, J.M. & Claridge, A.W. 2005. Hypogeous fungi: evolution of reproductive and dispersal strategies through interactions with animals and mycorrhizal plants. (In:) J. Dighton, J.F. White & Oudemans P. (eds), The Fungal Community. CRC, Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, pp. 613–623.
Google Scholar

Trappe, J.M., Molina, R., Louma, D.L., Cazares, E., Pilz, D., Smith, J.E., Castellano, M.A., Miller, S.L. & Trappe, M.J. 2009. Diversity, ecology and conservation of truffle fungi in forests of the Pacific Northwest – small mammal mycophagy. United States, Portland, Oregon, Department of Agriculture, 196.
Google Scholar

Trevis, L. 1953. Stomach contents of chipmunks and mantled squirrels in northeastern California. Journal of Mammalogy, 34: 316–324.
Google Scholar

Vernes, K. & Lebel, T. 2011. Truffle consumption by New Guinea forest wallabies. Fungal Ecology, 4: 270–276.
Google Scholar