Habitat use by wood mice (Apodemus sylvaticus) in a changeable arable landscape

Abstract

Wood mice Apodemus sylvaticus are potentially useful indicators of change in arable ecosystems. Here we focus on changes resulting from removal of land from arable production under the set-aside scheme. Wood mice were radio-tracked to compare: (a) their use of set-aside, crop and hedgerow before and after harvest; (b) set-aside con®gured as margins and as a 3 ha block; (c) cut and uncut 20-m wide set-aside margins. Males had larger home ranges, and were more mobile than females. Ranges were larger, and animals more mobile, before harvest than afterwards. There were no differences in range sizes of breeding and nonbreeding animals after harvest, suggesting that changes in habitat use were not a function of cessation of breeding. Before harvest, wood mice used habitats within their ranges at random, and their ranges contained a high proportion of cropped area. After harvest they preferred hedgerow and avoided margin set-aside within their ranges, but did not similarly avoid the set-aside block. The proportion of cropped area within their ranges decreased after harvest, and the proportion of margin increased. Our evidence suggests wood mice avoided using the area adjacent to the hedgerow, perhaps to avoid predators. Uncut set-aside patches were favoured and cut patches avoided, possibly in response to differences in food availability and levels of protection from predators. These results con®rm that wood mice are useful indicators of change in arable landscapes.

The Conservation Value of Hedgerows for Small Mammals in Prince Edward Island, Canada

“…This pattern may be more pronounced after the crop harvest when fields provide little food and cover and generalist species such as A. sylvaticus individuals have to retreat into hedges (Fitzgibbon 1997, Tattersall et al 2001. However, the most abundant generalist species Sorex araneus did not show any response to habitat type or to isolation.…”

Local habitat and landscape affect Ixodes ricinus tick abundances in forests on poor, sandy soils

“…Bank vole, a typical forest-dwelling rodent, prefers deciduous plant species to conifers (Hjältén et al, 2004) and prefers forests with well-developed lower vegetation (Ecke et al, 2002;Miklós and Žiak, 2002). Wood mouse, on the other hand, is a habitat generalist which also uses open habitats (Hansson, 1978;Tattersall et al, 2001) and thrives in situations where forests meet open land (García et al, 1998;Geuse et al, 1985;Tellería et al, 1991). In fact, in the study by Boyard et al (2008), this rodent species was more abundant in the forest-pasture ecotone than inside forests or pastures in a bocage landscape and was highlighted as the major means of transfer of I. ricinus larvae from woodland to pasture.…”

The prey composition of the Barn Owl(Tyto alba)with respect to landscape structure of its hunting area (Zala County, Hungary)

“…As a generalist species it can tolerate wide scale of the environmental factors and often occur in forests beside agricultural land as well (Tattersall et al 2001, Schlinkert et al 2016.…”