A COMPARISON OF SUBTERRANEAN HERBIVORY BY FOSSORIAL AND TERRESTRIAL MAMMALS

SUMMARY

This paper compares food location and selection and ecological effects of foraging by fossorial and terrestrial mammalian herbivores utilising subterranean plant items. Fossorial species probably rely on blind search patterns to locate food, while terrestrial species rely on sensory stimuli. The energetic costs of foraging are higher for fossorial than terrestrial species, but both groups of animals probably forage selectively when food availability is sufficiently high. Both groups can have profound ecological effects, fossorial species through their burrowing activities and terrestrial species through the diggings they create.