A Population Study of House-Mice Permanently Inhabiting a Reed-Bed in South Australia

Abstract

Wheatfields in South Australia are inhabited by house-mice (Mus musculus L.) for only part of each year, and not in late winter and early spring (Newsome 1969). So there must be permanently inhabited places which provide colonists for the fields. At Turretfield, 30 miles (48 km) north-east of Adelaide, the site of a population study in a wheatfield (Newsome 1969), a reed-bed along Salt Creek which runs through the fields looked a likely habitat and preliminary trapping supported this view. Reed-beds, if permanently inhabited, would provide ready spring-boards for the fields' re-invasion each year, since they commonly line streams throughout the 4000 square miles (10 360 km2) of wheatlands that Turretfield represents. So a second intensive population study began at Turretfield in the reed-bed.