A wide variety of animals feed on epigeous and hypogeous fungi. The mammals that feed on fungi are as diverse as fungi themselves and are called mycophages.
Squirrels and
chipmunks eat the greatest variety of fungi, but there are many other mammals that also forage on fungi, such as
marsupials,
mice,
rats,
voles,
lemmings,
deer,
shrews,
rabbits,
weasels, and more. Some animals feed on fungi opportunistically, while others rely on them as a primary source of food. Hypogeous sporocarps are a highly nutritious primary food source for some small mammals like the
Tasmanian bettong. Evidence of this is that the composition of fungi in the diet of Tasmanian bettong was positively correlated with body condition and growth rates of pouch young. Ectomycorrhizal or hypogeous fungi form a symbiotic relationship with small
mycophagous mammals. Hypogeous sporocarps depend on small fungivorous mammals to
disperse their spores since they are underground and cannot utilize wind dispersal like epigeous sporocarps. Underground fungi also play a role in a three-way symbiotic relationship with small marsupials and
Australian Eucalyptus forests. In
Eucalyptus forests, hypogeous sporocarp dispersal is positively affected by fires. After a fire, most if not all epigeous sporocarps are wiped out, leaving hypogeous sporocarps to be the primary source of fungi for small marsupials. The ability of hypogeous fungi to resist disasters, such as fire, could be due to their evolved ability to survive the digestive systems of animals in order to distribute. Sporocarps can also serve as a food source for other fungi. Sporocarps can be hosts to diverse communities of
fungicolous fungi. Short-lived sporocarps are more often hosts to fungicolous fungi than are long-lived sporocarps, which may have evolved more investment in defense mechanisms and tend to have less water content than their short-lived counterparts. ==See also==