View source for Animal hoarding behavior

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See [[Animal hoarding]] for the human behavior in which people keep too many pets.

In [[animal ethology]] the [[hoarding]] of [[food]] is a natural [[behaviour]] in certain species of animals.  It occurs in two forms:

*[[Larder-hoarder|Larder hoarding]], the collection of large amounts of food in a single place (a larder), which usually also serves as the nest where the animal lives.  [[Hamster]]s are famous larder hoarders. Indeed, the word "hamster" is derived from the German verb "hamstern" which means "to hoard"; similar verbs are found in various related languages Dutch ''hamsteren'', and Swedish ''hamstra''). Other languages also draw a clear connection between hamsters and hoarding: Polish ''chomikowa&#263;'', from ''chomik'' &ndash; hamster; Hebrew ''hamster''; ''oger'' (אוגר) comes from ''to hoarde''; ''le'egor'' (לאגור).

*[[Scatter-hoarder|Scatter hoarding]], the formation of a large number of small hoards or caches of nuts and other seeds.  Many species of [[squirrel]], including the [[Eastern Gray Squirrel]] and the [[fox squirrel]] are well known for scatter hoarding. This behaviour plays an important part in seed dispersal, as those seeds that are left uneaten will have a chance to germinate, thus enabling plants to spread their populations effectively.
The group of animals dislaying this behavior include:
* [[Clark's Nutcracker]]

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==See also==
*[[Compulsive hoarding]]
*[[Human hoarding behaviour]]

==References & Bibliography== 
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==Key texts==          
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==Additional material==
===Books===

===Papers===
*[http://scholar.google.com/scholar?sourceid=mozclient&num=50&scoring=d&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=Animal+hoarding+behavior Google Scholar]

==External links==



[[Category:Animal ethology]]
[[Category:Food]]
[[Category:Hoarding]]

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{{enWP!Hoarding}}