The Source of Animals Moving into a Depopulated Area

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Abstract
The Peromyscus leucopus noveboracensis population of a 17-acre study plot in a bottomland forest area on the Patuxent Research Refuge in Maryland was exhaustively live-trapped over a 7-day period. All individuals were marked and released. From data thus secured, range localities of the individual mice were mapped and the population was calculated to be between 6 and 7 adult mice per acre, with nearly equal numbers of [male] [male] and [female] [female] . Following the live-trapping, a period of saturation snap-trapping was begun in the central 1-acre plot and continued for 35 nights. The first 3 nights resulted in the capture of 13 adult [male] [male], 10 adult [female] [female] , and 3 juveniles. Thus, by standard snap-trap methods, the population would have been estimated at the erroneously high figure of 23 adult mice per acre. By the 35th night of continuous trapping a total of 36 adult [male] [male], 18 adult [female] [female] and 22 small juveniles had been taken. All of these adult animals were marked individuals that had been taken in the live-trapping period. The animals taken first in the central acre were those whose normal ranges overlapped or closely approached this area. After these were removed from the area the animals captured in the central acre were, in general, those whose normal ranges were at succeedingly greater distances. Ingress was from all directions, principally by mice with previously established nearby home ranges, not merely vagrant animals.
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