Activity, ranging, and habitat use by rodents in county Durham

Abstract

The activity, home - ranging, and habitat use behaviour of two species of rodent, Apodemus sylvaticus (L.), the wood mouse, and Clethrionomys glareolus (Schreber), the bank vole, was investigated over a period of 14 weeks in two contrasting habitats. In farmland, woodmice utilised the rough vegetation around a crop of winter - sown wheat as a nest site, and probably as a food source, while the field surface also formed part of the home range of many animals studied. Weather conditions had little effect on the capture success of woodmice in farmland. Bank voles were caught exclusively in the boundaries around the edge of the field. Home range sizes and levels of activity of woodmice in woodland were lower than those of animals in farmland. Capture success of woodmice was not related to vegetative cover in woodland. Bankvoles were caught preferentially in scrub vegetation in all weather conditions, though weather was an important factor in capture success under other catagories of vegetation. The extent of intersexual range overlap of bankvoles in woodland fell significantly during the period of the study though no other changes were apparent for either species. Home range sizes and levels of activity were consistently lower than those reported in other studies.