Recognition of Odour-Induced Bias in the Live-Trapping of Apodemus sylvaticus
- 1 April 1986
- Vol. 46 (2) , 194-199
- https://doi.org/10.2307/3565467
Abstract
A population of woodmice Apodemus sylvaticus L. inhabiting a grassy meadow and its surrounding hedgerows was live-trapped with Longworth traps for 21 months. Traps were treated either with conspecific or heterospecific odour, or were left odourless, and a particular choice regime was maintained over the whole trapping grid for four-night trapping periods. All mice selectively chose to enter traps scented with conspecific odour when this was alongside odourless traps; only females showed a selection for familiar odour. Neither sex made any discrimination between heterospecifically scented and odourless traps. In the hedgerow, however, male mice selectively chose to enter the heterospecifically scented traps. There is no evidence that males are drawn to female scented traps, or vice versa.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: