hide them, and then come back to eat them after they have ripened. Leafcutter ants harvest pieces of inedible leaves and then cache them in underground chambers to ripen with a fungus which is the main food for the colony. Contrary to popular belief, there is no scientific evidence that crocodilians such as the American Alligator cache large prey underwater to consume later. Hoard distribution and size Scatter hoarding is the formation of a large number of small hoards. This behavior is present in both birds (especially the Canada jay) and small mammals, mainly squirrels and other rodents, such as the eastern gray squirrel, fox squirrel, and wood mouse. Specifically, those who do not migrate to warmer climates or hibernate for winter are most likely to scatter hoard. This behavior plays an important part in seed dispersal, as those seeds that are left uneaten will have a chance to germinate, thus enabling plants to spread their populations effectively. While it is clear why some animals scatter their food caches, there is still the question of why they would store the food outside of their bodies in the first place. The reason for this is that scatter hoarders must remain active during the caching period in order to hide the most food in the most places possible. Storing the food inside their body would reduce their mobility and be counterproductive to this objective. Cache spacing is the primary technique that scatter hoarders use to protect food from pilferers. By spreading the food supply around geographically, hoarders discourage competitors who happen upon a cache from conducting area-restricted searching for more of the supply. Despite cache spacing, however, hoarders are still unable to eliminate the threat of pilferage. However, having multiple cache sites is costly because it requires a good spatial memory. Scatter-hoarders generally have larger hippocampi than animals that do not participate in scatter-hoarding behavior. Additionally, studies have shown that hippocampal volume in scatter-hoarders varies seasonally and based on the harshness of the climate that the animal lives in. In larder hoarding, the hoard is large and is found in a single place termed a larder, which usually also serves as the nest where the animal lives. Hamsters are famous larder hoarders. Indeed, the German verb "hamstern" (to hoard) is derived from the noun "Hamster" which refers to the rodent; similar verbs are found in various related languages (Dutch hamsteren, and Swedish