ONCE-PILFERED CACHE SITES NOT AVOIDED BY BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES

Black-capped chickadees, Parus atrocapillus, scatter-hoard food and re cover items at a later time. Loss of cached food to robbers, however, is high in natural populations. A laboratory study was conducted to de termine whether individuals would avoid re-use of storage sites that h ad been pilfered. Following an initial caching episode, an experimente r pilfered half the stored seeds, and allowed the subject to (1) recov er remaining unpilfered seeds, (2) discover pilfered sites and (3) cac he seeds. In two trials (N=16, N=13), there was no evidence that the s ubjects avoided pilfered sites when caching the second time. High cach e loss and large numbers of potential cache sites in the wild may prec lude the evolution of short-term memory for pilfered sites.