The Birds and Mammals of the Vanderhoof Region, British Columbia

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Abstract
The bird and mammal fauna of the Vanderhoof region, hitherto unreported, was studied during the summers of 1945 and 1946. Forests of aspen and Engelmann spruce, lodgepole pine forests, willow and alder bottoms, grassland and tillage, constitute terrestrial faunal habitats. Three large, shallow lakes, streams, marshy sloughs and forest ponds constitute aquatic faunal habitats. In 1945 one large slough, important as a nesting and feeding place for waterfowl, deteriorated in value because of drought; another dried out completely. This condition was not corrected in 1946. Larger nesting areas, on the lakes, remained stable. The total of 186 spp. and subspp. of birds constitutes an avifauna in which elements originating east of the Rocky Mts. are prominent. The numbers of Zonotrichia albicollis and Spizella pallida observed exceeded the totals of these spp. hitherto recorded from Brit. Columbia west of the Rocky Mts. The former nests commonly. The nesting of Colymbus nigricollis, Anas discors, Aythya americana, Erismatura jamaicensis, Steganopus tricolor, Telmatodytes palustris and Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus mark important range extensions northward. Migrations of waterfowl are noted in detail; post-breeding concns. of diving ducks on an open lake continued for several weeks. In life history studies of certain waterfowl, crow-predation was found to be a restrictive factor. Summer visitant land birds and their increase moved out several weeks before the first southbound transients arrived from the north. Land birds fed on Lonicera involucrata berries and neglected the more abundant berry crop of Amelanchier alnifolia. A fly maggot, Proto-calliphora h. hirudo, feeding subcutaneously on nestling passerine birds reduced the population of these hosts. Food taken from a nest of Cryptoglaux acadica indicated that small mammals, exclusively, were fed the young; the male parent was vocal, the female silent. 28 spp. of mammals are recorded. The populations of Microtus pennsylvanicus and Peromyscus mani-culatus were at or near peak proportions; Clethrionomys gapperi was less common; Sorex cinereus scarce. A reduction in the population of snowshoe rabbits through the summer of 1945 is attributed to predation pressure by horned owls. A study of coyote food habits based on examination of 61 winter and 46 spring and summer scats indicates snowshoe rabbit as a preferred food. The region is winter range for a large moose population.

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