A Review of Dispersal of Acorns by the Eurasian Jay: Implications for Colonisation of Oak in Scotland

摘要

Studies from Europe and North America show that jays are frequently the primary dispersal agent for acorns, caching acorns in prodigious numbers (up to 8000 per bird per season) and transporting them distances of between 250 m and 1 km and occasionally 5 km or more. Under the right conditions, these translocated acorns develop into new oak woodland. This is the main process through which colonisation by oak happens at landscape scale. Acorns form a very important part of the diet of jays, and the oaks depend on jays for long distance dispersal. The nature of this relationship is not known in Scotland, though a recent study has recorded the first example of oak colonisation by jays (Scottish Forestry, this edition). Understanding this phenomenon canhelp to guide improved native woodland management to enable the regeneration of oak, and is important in the context of woodland fragmentation and forest succession.