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Impact of deer bait sites on Peromyscus mice in southern Illinois

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Wildlife populations are heavily influenced by food availability and predation rates. Changing the distribution of high quality food sources can often alter the distribution of wildlife populations. In particular, increases in food abundance can result in immigration; earlier breeding; and increased productivity, survival, and density of wildlife (Morris et al. 2011). Increases in prey abundance, however, may also lead to increases in predator densities, which can in turn decrease survival and increase emigration (Cooper and Ginnett 2000, Hamilton et al. 2002). Furthermore, predation risk can cause sublethal changes in prey behavior such as different habitat use, increased vigilance, decreases in home range size, and decreased reproductive output (Lima and Dill 1990). Establishing bait sites for studying and hunting game species is a common practice, but nontarget species such as deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) may also be attracted to and consume this supplemental food (Rollins 1996).

Parent Publication

Citation

Pfaff, Madeleine; Tosa, Marie I.; Springer, Matthew T.; Schauber, Eric M.; Nielsen, Clayton K. 2014. Impact of deer bait sites on Peromyscus mice in southern Illinois. In: Groninger, John W.; Holzmueller, Eric J.; Nielsen, Clayton K.; Dey, Daniel C., eds. Proceedings, 19th Central Hardwood Forest Conference; 2014 March 10-12; Carbondale, IL. General Technical Report NRS-P-142. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 89-91.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/47382