Abstract
Dispersal of Manchurian walnut seeds depends mainly on zoochory due to their size. Eurasian red squirrels have a behaviour of caching Manchurian walnuts. This behaviour is scatter-hoarding of large seeds. Snag and dying fallen trees are major resources by themselves in forest ecosystems. Slash or woodpiles after tree felling have the same function as snag and dying fallen trees. The present paper aims to report that Eurasian red squirrels utilize piles of slash, to discuss the importance of slash on the forest floor, and to determine which properties of the piles of slash influence Eurasian red squirrels' access to the slash. Among the woodpile properties, the results showed a negative correlation between the distance to the Manchurian walnut tree and the number of walnuts having feeding marks, and a positive correlation between the number of logs in a woodpile and the number of walnuts having feeding marks. Eurasian red squirrels may use woodpiles as a safe feeding site.
