Behavioral Population Regulation in the Woodmouse, Peromyscus leucopus

Abstract

This study attempts to determine whether or not social interactions among woodmice (Peromyscus leucopus) result in behavioral regulation of population density. Live-trapping and tracking on a 13-acre plot located in a southern Michigan oak-hickory woodlot provided data on the numbers of mice living on the plot and on the extent of each individual's home range. The home ranges tended to be exclusive of the ranges of others of the same sex (females exhibited this more strongly than males). The female woodmice appeared to form a closed community in which the residents occupied home ranges of a characteristic and stable size and in which transient females were able to establish home ranges only when vacancies of a suitable size were present. Male woodmice, on the other hand, did not appear to exhibit population regulation by limiting the number of immigrants.