Population dynamics of, and habitat use by, Austrlian native rodents in wet sclerophyll forest, Tasmania II. Pseudomys higginsi (Rodentia : Muridae)

Abstract

A local population of Tasmanian long-tailed mice, Pseudomys higginsi, occupying an area of wet sclerophyll forest at low density was studied for 13 months using mark-recapture techniques. Individuals in the trappable population were readily recaught (29 individuals caught 183 times). Demographic data are presented for a single age cohort born in 1989 (21 individuals trapped 126 times) and surviving until the end of the trapping programme (April 1990). Habitat use was investigated by comparing data from individuals active within four contiguous areas of forest displaying structural and floristic heterogeneity. Trap-revealed habitat use indicated that P. higginsi was completely absent from areas of thickest ground cover where densities of the sympatric murid, Rams lutreolus velutinus, were highest. Conversely, captures of P. higginsi were highest in areas of boulder scree where captures of R. 1. velutinus were lower than expected. Relative numbers of individuals active in each macrohabitat group are examined and a role for interspecific competition between these rodent species is inferred.