Abstract
In a middle-aged, deciduous forest in southcentral Pennsylvania, there was a significant decrease in the number of captures of white-footed mice on cleared plots between pre- and post-litter removal phases of the study. Although woody ground litter comprised only 8.2% of the ground cover, half the total distance travelled by P. leucopus was on woody ground litter. Use of woody ground cover for travel by P. leucopus may represent a trade-off between the risks of predation from rattlesnakes Crotalus horridus that use ground litter as ambush sites and nocturnal raptors that are more common and employ auditory cues to locate prey. -from Authors
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 118-121 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Canadian Field-Naturalist |
Volume | 106 |
Issue number | 1 |
State | Published - 1 Jan 1992 |