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Latebreaking Poster

Session: Habitat Structure, Fragmentation, Connectivity (Latebreaking)

LB 25-217 - Investigation of small mammal abundance, diversity, and dispersal on and around the Eastern Washington University Prairie Restoration Site

Thursday, August 10, 2023
5:00 PM – 6:30 PM PDT
Location: ESA Exhibit Hall

    Presenting Author(s)

  • SD

    Sarah Deshazer

    Graduate Student
    Eastern Washington University
    Caucasian, Washington, United States

    • Coauthor(s)

  • KM

    Krisztian Magori, Ph.D.

    Associate Professor
    Eastern Washington University, United States

  • PS

    Paul Spruell, Ph.D.

    Associate Chair and Associate Professor
    Eastern Washington University, Washington, United States

Small mammals are an ecologically important component of every landscape on Earth. They are a food source for higher trophic level animals, disperse plant seed and mycorrhizal fungi spore, engineer the landscape through burrowing and foraging activities, and alter plant community composition through selective predation of seed and grain. Small mammals have also been found to help facilitate the transition between successive stages in prairie restoration. Eastern Washington University has dedicated 120 acres of campus land to restoration of native prairie habitat. We conducted a survey of resident small mammals on and around the Eastern Washington University Prairie Restoration Project site. Small mammals were live trapped over a 16-week period during Spring and Fall of 2022 at ten sites within a 4 km radius of the restoration site, in areas of agricultural wheatfield and natural vegetation. Animals were tagged with individually unique ear tags for mark-recapture analysis. Trapping success was highest at sites located within the restoration site, where ground cover was the highest. The overall most common and abundant species collected was Peromyscus maniculatus, both on and off the restoration site. Mus musculus and Microtus spp. were collected only at sites located within the restoration area. Sorex vagrans was collected at one site, within an agricultural area near a drainage ditch. Buccal epithelial cheek swabs were also collected for ongoing genetic analysis of population structure for Peromyscus maniculatus to analyze connectivity on and around the restoration site.