Use of Tallgrass Prairie by Peromyscus leucopus

The white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) is a common resident of forests and woodlands but not grasslands in Kansas. Studies of P. leucopuson Konza Prairie Research Natural Area (KONZA) indicated that wooded microhabitats with a complex vertical structure of trees and shrubs were selected over wooded microhabitats that lacked a shrub layer. Even more striking was the near lack of use of grassland habitat contiguous with the wooded sites. In other regions Geluso (1971) and Adler et al. (1984) have documented occasional use of grasslands by P. leucopus , especially when high densities were reached in adjacent wooded habitat. The purpose of this paper is to (1) document use of ungrazed tallgrass prairie by P. leucopus , (2) compare relative densities of P. leucopus across three major habitats on KONZA (ungrazed tallgrass prairie, limestone ledges with shrubs and trees, and gallery forest), and (3) provide information on the distribution of P. leucopus within ungrazed grasslands of KONZA.