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قراءة كتاب Ecological Observations on the Woodrat, Neotoma floridana

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Ecological Observations on the Woodrat, Neotoma floridana

Ecological Observations on the Woodrat, Neotoma floridana

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
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24, with more sleet on January 25. Ice from the earlier storm still remained. On January 30, the temperature dropped to -7° and a three-inch cover of snow still remained over the coat of ice. The month of January, 1949, had the heaviest precipitation in 81 years (5.09 inches) and a cover of ice remained for at least 21 days. There were other sleet storms of lesser proportions on February 2 and again on February 21.

Ordinarily sleet would not seriously damage woodrats living in houses in woodland habitats and less suitable hedge rows because it usually freezes as it falls and coats only the surface of the house. Gradual thawing would allow normal runoff without much penetration. Because the sleet during the storm described above did not form a glaze as it fell, the ice particles penetrated many houses. It has been observed many times that captive woodrats refused food that was frozen or were unable to eat it. Woodrats in live-traps in winter rapidly weaken unless a large supply of food is available. If food supplies became sealed over by ice, woodrats would have died by starvation or by falling an easy prey to predators. The rats were more accessible to several predators than were smaller mammals such as meadow voles which were difficult to obtain because of the coating of ice over the fields.

The decimated population surviving into the breeding season of 1949 failed to make substantial gains. In fact, during the following four-year period the general trend of the population over the Reservation as a whole seemed to be one of gradual further decline.

In November, 1949, the rats were almost gone from the area of north slope and hilltop in oak-hickory-elm woodland where the most intensive live-trapping and other field work had been done the previous year. The following descriptions of houses remaining on the area at that time give some idea of the habitat, and of the course of events correlated with the fluctuations in numbers of woodrats.

No. 1. At the hilltop outcrop, partly on a substrate of limestone boulders, built around an elm of two-foot DBH, which lent support to one side. A hackberry sapling one inch in stem diameter grew through the middle of the house, providing further support. The house was two feet high and six feet in diameter, and was in obvious disrepair, with a hole several inches in diameter in its top. It had been occupied in the autumn of 1948. It was constructed mainly of sticks, ranging in diameter from approximately one inch to straw size. Many of the sticks, from .4 to .5 inches in diameter and one to two feet long, seemingly would have been heavy burdens for a rat, although they were of light-weight wood, sumac and elm. Mixed with the sticks were quantities of dry leaves, bark, and chips of wood, all material appearing old and weathered. This house was in elm-oak-hickory woods 50 feet from a cultivated field on the hilltop to the east and south. To the north and west the escarpment sloped away abruptly. There was a coralberry thicket beneath the trees on the adjacent hilltop.

Figure 1

(A) Map of part of University of Kansas Natural History Reservation, showing first-capture sites for all woodrats live-trapped in the autumn of 1948. Because of the short time involved and the few traps available, much of the area shown was not thoroughly trapped. Woodrats were abundant, though much less so than in 1947, as shown by the large number of deserted houses.

(B) Map of woodrat study area, same as shown in (A), showing first-capture sites for all woodrats live-trapped in 1949. Woodrats were still moderately abundant, but much below the level of the previous year. Triangles indicate those capture sites not sampled in 1948.

(C) Map of woodrat study area, same as shown in (A), showing first-capture sites for all woodrats live-trapped in 1950. Numbers were medium-low, having undergone drastic reduction from the peak level. Triangles indicate those capture sites where trapping was not done in earlier years.

(D) Map of woodrat study area, same as shown in (A), showing first-capture sites for all woodrats live-trapped in 1951. The population was low, but had not yet reached its lowest ebb.

(E) Map of woodrat study area, same as shown in (A), showing first-capture sites for all woodrats live-trapped in 1952, when the population had declined to relatively low numbers and disappeared from much of its former habitat.

(F) Map of the 590-acre Natural History Reservation, showing the area where woodrats were studied.

No. 2. On gently sloping hilltop edge 15 feet from the outcrop and escarpment, built around a forked walnut sapling having both trunks approximately five inches in diameter. The sapling, coming up through the center of the house at a 45° angle, evidently had been bent by the accumulated weight of the debris at an early stage of its growth, many years before. Trees were small in this part of the woods, with a well developed understory thicket of coralberry and sumac. This house approximately one foot high and six feet wide, was constructed mainly of sticks and was similar in composition to No. 1, but appeared considerably older with all the sticks blackened and rotten. In the autumn of 1948 this house was used by woodrats, but probably only as a temporary stopping place, because it was already in disrepair then.

No. 3. At edge of escarpment, 25 feet from No. 2, on a flat boulder approximately six feet long, three feet wide and one foot thick. The decaying and much flattened mass of sticks was mainly on top of the boulder, but also spilled over its edges. Fresh sign was noted at this house in the autumn of 1948, but the house was already in disrepair then, and seemingly it was used only as a stopping place.

No. 4. At the hilltop outcrop where an elm had fallen across it. The decaying log remaining was approximately 12 feet long and 15 inches thick. This log passed diagonally through the house, providing its main support. The house was approximately 39 inches high, its summit extending a little above the level of the top of the outcrop. The house was approximately seven feet wide along the outcrop. This house was somewhat intermediate between the typical dome-shaped stick piles that the rat builds in open situations and the formless accumulations of sticks with which some rats living in deep rock crevices line the entrances. Part of the accumulation was beneath the limestone boulders and outcropping slabs. Approximately half of the material used in the house consisted of sticks and the remainder of pieces of bark and chips of wood, mostly gathered from the fallen elm. This house had shrunken noticeably from decay and settling in the months since it was occupied, in the autumn of 1948. The house was surrounded by a thicket of fragrant sumac, dogwood, and hackberry saplings.

No. 5. At edge of a protruding boulder one foot thick at the hilltop outcrop of the west facing escarpment, and 100 feet back in the woods from the edge of a corn field, in undergrowth of dogwood, wild currant, and coralberry. The house consisted of a pile of rotten twigs, 3 inches deep and 30 inches wide on the upper side of the boulder, and a lining of similar material at the lower edge of the boulder, partly blocking the crevice beneath it. The twigs composing the house were old and rotten. However, a few dry but still green hackberry leaves were stored in the crevice beneath the boulder. In a bare space atop the boulder were several recent woodrat droppings, small and obviously produced by an immature individual, which, perhaps, had recently settled at this old house site.

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