Effect of Vertebrate Animals on Seed Crop of Sugar Pine

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Abstract
In 1951 at Lake Almanor, Plumas County, California, the fate of the cone crop of 20 marked sugar pines was followed. Of the original 1,656 healthy cones, 54% were cut by squirrels (Tamiasciurus douglasii), 34% were destroyed by woodpeckers (Dendrocopos albolarvatus) in search of seeds, and 12% opened. Jays (Cyanocitta stelleri) took the seeds of cones that opened on the trees, while nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis and S. canadensis) and chickadees (Parus gambeli) robbed cones that opened on the ground. Shed seeds were hunted by chipmunks (Eutamias amoenus, E. speciosus, and E. townsendii), squirrels (Citellus lateralis), and mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). Apparently rodents and birds destroyed the entire seed crop from healthy cones.

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