Small Mammal Inventory -- Cranberry Pond Mesic Forest

Male Southern Red-backed Vole (Myodes gapperi)

Mesic forest dominated by Yellow Birch, Eastern Hemlock, Spicebush,
and loads of mosses, skunk cabbage, and other plants in the herbaceous layer.

Small mammal trapping in the mesic forest south of Cranberry Swamp yielded White-footed Mice (Peromyscus leucopus) and a Southern Red-backed Vole.  The habitat is quite moist even though this spring has been so dry.  Yellow Birch, Eastern Hemlock, and Red Maple dominate the canopy while Spicebush is abundant in the sub-canopy.  The forest floor is blanketed by a variety of moss species.

Small Mammal Inventory -- Little Pond -- Swamp White Oak/Basswood Stand

Juan Sanchez measures the hind foot of a white-footed mouse.

The animal was released after measurements were recorded.
If high speed indicates alertness and health, then this animal was very alert and healthy!  

We continued our inventory of small mammal species associated with various critical habitats.  This week we surveyed a unique stand of Swamp White Oak/American Basswood/Red Maple that has Carex tussocks and Skunk Cabbage in the understory and was densely colonized by the invasive Morrow's Honeysuckle bushes located near the Little Pond Boardwalk.  Although this area had muddy soils and would normally have been flooded with  knee-deep water, this area had very little water due to our dry spring season.  We have only captured White-footed Mice in this location.  All of the mice exhibited signs that they were reproductively active.  We will try to return to this site in the future to see if other small mammal species can be captured.  As the warm season progresses this area is usually very dense with ferns and other wetland associated species.

Roxbury Land Trust Small Mammal Lecture -- March 25, 2012

"

Eastern Chipmunks awoke a little early this year,
so maybe the saying should be "the early chipmunk gets the... nut!"
Photo by Leo Kulinski, Jr.

Save the Date!  Sunday, March 25 at 3:00 p.m.

Lecture on Our Resident Rodents: Chipmunks, Mice and More by James Fischer,
Research Director, White Memorial Conservation Center. At Roxbury Town Hall.

http://www.roxburylandtrust.org/date.html 

Roxbury Town Hall is located at 29 North Street,  Roxbury, CT 06783

Small Mammal Live Trapping Yields a Few Animals

A wet meadow was surveyed for small mammals last week in the Apple Hill Lower field.  A total of 28 Sherman Live Traps were set for 4 nights equaling 112 trap nights of effort.  Several species were captured but overall yields were quite low indicating that small mammal abundance might be low this spring.

Wet Meadow in Late Winter/Early Spring

Meadow Voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) are commonly associated with Wet Meadows in Connecticut.  

This wet meadow abruptly changed into a wet shrubby herbaceous inland wetland.

Male Mask Shrew (Sorex cinereus)

White-footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus)

Small Mammal Inventory -- Apple Hill Lower Field

Nicole Morin helps to install a pit-fall trap array targeting
Southern Bog Lemming and other small mammals that inhabit wet meadows.
Photo by James Fischer

We installed a small pit-fall trap array in the Apple Hill Lower Field to target the small mammals inhabiting shrubby/herbaceous inland wetland found along the south end of the field.  The soils in the upland field were frozen while the soils closer to the wetland were not.  We encountered a few problems with this array and so our efforts did not yield any captures.  But it was a great first attempt for the season.  Trapping will continue throughout the year in a variety of habitats.

Small Mammal Inventory State Permit Approved

Eastern Chipmunk (Tamias striatus)
Photo by Robert Scholl

I am pleased to announce the state of CT, DEEP, Bureau of Natural Resources has approved our permit for inventorying small mammals at White Memorial for the 2012 season.  The goal of this project is to inventory the small mammal species and to explore their habitat associations.  Click here to read previous posts.  If you are interested in volunteering with this project, please contact James Fischer, WMCC Research Director.  

White Memorial's Terrestrial Small Mammal Inventory

Juvenile Masked Shrew (Sorex cinereus)
Photo by James Fischer

Inventorying terrestrial small mammal species requires the use of multiple survey methods to insure a thorough assessment of all species.  We are preparing for this project during 2012 and will need help by a series of dedicated volunteers.  Every volunteer will receive training and advisement during the course of this project.  Our goal is to assess the species of terrestrial small mammal species that inhabit the critical habitats found on White Memorial Foundation property.  We will focus our survey efforts on the shrews and moles (Order Insectivora - insect eaters), as well as squirrels, mice, and voles (Order Rodentia - gnawing mammals or rodents).  These species are often overlooked by inventory efforts because they are secretive, even though they are abundant and widespread.  These species are important because they are prey species for many of our predators or serve as predators themselves to many invertebrate organisms.  Some of these species have been found to serve important ecological roles in the disease transmission that affect humans (i.e. Lyme Disease).  And their most important role of all is that they are challenging to work with, which forces you to put on your ecological detectives hat when you explore their lives.  Life's greatest gifts come from its biggest challenges and can be found in the smallest of packages.  If you are interested in helping with this survey please contact James Fischer, WMCC Research Director.  There is much to be done to get ready for the season, so every bit of help ahead of time is greatly appreciated.