Great Plains Natural Science Society

 

Date of this Version

12-2013

Document Type

Article

Citation

The Prairie Naturalist 45: 94–95. December 2013

Comments

Published by the Great Plains Natural Science Society, 2013. Used by permission.

Abstract

Intraspecific dual captures of rodents are uncommon, but not rare. There are several reports of brown rats (Rattus norvegicus), white-footed deer mice (Peromyscus leucopus), North American deer mice (P. maniculatus), western harvest mice (Reithrodontomys megalotis) and meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) caught simultaneously in the same trap (i.e. a door-closing live-trap; Davis 1955, Getz 1961, Blaustein and Rothstein 1978, Jenkins and Llewellyn 1981, Novak 1983). Some reports are incidental whereas others are interpreted as social associations or bonding between conspecifics. Interspecific dual captures are rarely reported in the literature. The earliest report of interspecific dual captures involved Peromyscus sp. and Perognathus sp. (Evans and Holdenried 1943). Petersen (1975) reported three instances of interspecific dual captures where northern pygmy mice (Baiomys taylori) were captured with a western harvest mouse and a fulvous harvest mouse (R. fulvescens). Three instances of dual capture involving a North American deer mouse and a Great Basin pocket mouse (Perognathus parvus) were reported by Feldhamer (1977) in which the pocket mouse was always killed. Recently, Calisher et al. (2000) reported a dual capture of P. maniculatus and a piñon mouse (P. truei) and Christopher and Barrett (2007) reported a dual capture of P. leucopus and a golden mouse (Ochrotomys nuttalli). Herein, we report an incident where a piñon mouse and a silky pocket mouse (P. flavus) were captured together, and the piñon mouse consumed part of the pocket mouse.

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