The group-nesting and food-hoarding behaviour of the southern flying squirrel, Glaucomys volans

Microsatellite DNA analysis and behavioural experiments on the food-hoarding strategy and mechanisms of cache retrieval were examined in the group-living, scatter-hoarding southern flying squirrel, Glaucomys volans. Analysis of 196 individuals from 86 natural nest groups showed that nestmates are typically adult and unrelated (mean ± SE of pairwise relatedness being 0.03 ± 0.05). This result largely precludes any cooperative food-hoarding strategy predicated upon inclusive fitness. The behavioural experiments showed that, under laboratory conditions, food-storing individuals are able to retrieve caches through spatial memory cues alone. Together, these results support a selfish hoarding strategy where nestmates hoard food independently, with a storer receiving a retrieval advantage on the basis of its spatial memory of cache sites. A preliminary conditional evolutionarily stable strategy model is outlined to explain the genetic and behavioural results within the natural history of this species.