Woodrat Population Dynamics Following Modification of Resource Availability

Implications of Invasion by Juniperus Virginiana on Small Mammals in the Southern Great Plains

“…P. leucopus and N. floridana were captured most frequently in late-successional areas with high amounts of woody dicots, whereas S. hispidus had the highest numbers in earlysuccessional habitats with greater amounts of monocots. Densities of all rodents were higher in early and late succession and lowest in forest habitats with little herbaceous cover (McMurry et al 1993(McMurry et al , 1994(McMurry et al , 1996. These results correspond to our findings that diversity and abundance were lowest in the cross timbers.…”

“…Occurrence of the other main woodland species, N. floridana, was correlated positively with woody vegetation and negatively with forbs. These results were consistent with McMurry et al (1993), who found that N. floridana selects areas with increased woody vegetation for their greater structural complexity, and Schweiger et al (2000), who reported capturing the species only on large patches of woody vegetation adjacent to continuous forest. Notably in our study, however, N. floridana was not captured in the old-field site where there was a high density of woody cover in the form of eastern red cedar.…”

“…Previous studies at an area adjacent to our study sites found that P. leucopus, S. hispidus, and N. floridana responded to successional changes in habitat (McMurry et al 1993(McMurry et al , 1994(McMurry et al , 1996. P. leucopus and N. floridana were captured most frequently in late-successional areas with high amounts of woody dicots, whereas S. hispidus had the highest numbers in earlysuccessional habitats with greater amounts of monocots.…”

“…Prairie species, such as deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus), fulvous harvest mice (Reithrodontomys fulvescens), plains harvest mice (Reithrodontomys montanus), and hispid cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus), should be prevalent in tallgrass-prairie and open old-field habitats, but their probability of occurrence should be negatively associated with cover of eastern red cedar (Goertz 1964;Hanchey and Wilkins 1998;Schweiger et al 2000). Conversely, probability of occurrence of woodland voles (Microtus pinetorum), white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus), and eastern woodrats (Neotoma floridana), which are woodland species (Kaufman et al 1983;McMurry et al 1993), should be positively associated with eastern red cedar cover. We tested these predictions by intensive trapping on large (3.24-ha) grids representing 3 distinct plant communities in the cross-timbers ecoregion (Hoagland et al 1999) of the Great Plains: tallgrass prairie, cross-timbers forest, and old fields.…”

Responses of two species of heathland rodents to habitat manipulation: Vegetation density thresholds and the habitat accommodation model

“…The experiment demonstrated that P. penicillatus , a species with a preference for vegetation cover above 45 cm (Rosenzweig & Winnakur 1969), avoided areas cleared of such cover. McMurry et al. (1993) reported reduced densities of eastern woodrat ( Neotoma floridana ) populations in response to the chemical removal of North American rangeland brush.…”