Considering a recent proposition on this journal that the endemic Xinjiang Ground Jay (Podoces biddulphi) would be expanding its range to Qinghai and Gansu, a previously overlooked statement has been found in old lite...Considering a recent proposition on this journal that the endemic Xinjiang Ground Jay (Podoces biddulphi) would be expanding its range to Qinghai and Gansu, a previously overlooked statement has been found in old literature suggesting that this species has occurred in Gansu at least since the 19th century. The phreatophytic vegetation this desert bird requires likely constrains its distribution. Therefore, although the desert expansion the current global climate warming is producing may make the Xinjiang Ground Jay expand its range, only well-preserved desert might be colonized. Future research in apparently suitable areas, at present inhabited by the Mongolian Ground Jay (P. hendersoni) instead, might make the ecology of these two mutually exclusive species better understood.展开更多
The study of seed dispersal,biotic seed dispersal,and even less,the role of birds in it,have been almost neglected in deserts.Virtually absent from the literature on seed dispersal are the ground-jays,genus Podoces,fo...The study of seed dispersal,biotic seed dispersal,and even less,the role of birds in it,have been almost neglected in deserts.Virtually absent from the literature on seed dispersal are the ground-jays,genus Podoces,four species of the crow family that inhabit arid environments,even true deserts,from Iran to Mongolia.Although they are omnivorous,they seem to mainly depend on the seeds of desert plants during the cold season.There are suggestions in sparse literature that they may contribute to seed dispersal similarly to several corvid species of other climates,by caching seeds in useful microsites to save them for later consumption and thus actually favoring the germination of the seeds they fail to recover.Future research might benefit from comparison with the vast literature on their better-known seed-caching relatives.This paper is aimed at providing basic information on each ground-jay species and some sug-gestions for investigating their likely symbiosis with desert plants,with possible applications to the maintenance and restoration of vegetation in a very extended arid zone.展开更多
文摘Considering a recent proposition on this journal that the endemic Xinjiang Ground Jay (Podoces biddulphi) would be expanding its range to Qinghai and Gansu, a previously overlooked statement has been found in old literature suggesting that this species has occurred in Gansu at least since the 19th century. The phreatophytic vegetation this desert bird requires likely constrains its distribution. Therefore, although the desert expansion the current global climate warming is producing may make the Xinjiang Ground Jay expand its range, only well-preserved desert might be colonized. Future research in apparently suitable areas, at present inhabited by the Mongolian Ground Jay (P. hendersoni) instead, might make the ecology of these two mutually exclusive species better understood.
文摘The study of seed dispersal,biotic seed dispersal,and even less,the role of birds in it,have been almost neglected in deserts.Virtually absent from the literature on seed dispersal are the ground-jays,genus Podoces,four species of the crow family that inhabit arid environments,even true deserts,from Iran to Mongolia.Although they are omnivorous,they seem to mainly depend on the seeds of desert plants during the cold season.There are suggestions in sparse literature that they may contribute to seed dispersal similarly to several corvid species of other climates,by caching seeds in useful microsites to save them for later consumption and thus actually favoring the germination of the seeds they fail to recover.Future research might benefit from comparison with the vast literature on their better-known seed-caching relatives.This paper is aimed at providing basic information on each ground-jay species and some sug-gestions for investigating their likely symbiosis with desert plants,with possible applications to the maintenance and restoration of vegetation in a very extended arid zone.
