1997-06-13_REPORT - M1981302 (15)

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Colorado and adjacent Wyoming, a description essential to conservation planning and environmental management directed toward the continued viability of populations. Microhabitat.—Habitat of all study sites was described in detail, recording 2- and 3- dimensional structure in the vicinity of each trap station. Table 8 indicates general habitat at each study site and dates of survey. Table 9 provides general description of habitat (including recent or continuing disturbance) of each individual transect on each study site. Detail of trap stations by transect by site is presented in Appendix II. Meadow jumping mice were captured on two sites, VanVleet and Gebhard. For each transect on those two sites, right and left lines were compared for each variable with Students t-tests. There were no significant differences between lines, so data from right and left lines were merged and all further analyses considered entire transacts, not separate lines of trap stations. It is of interest to know whether transects at a given study site were homogeneous. Therefore, transects on each site were compared on all habitat variables with 1-way analysis of variance, to test the hypothesis that mean values for the variables were equal across transects. Table 10 indicates F-value, p, and critical value of F by variable by transect. On the VanVleet Parcel there were significant differences among transects in percentage coverage of litter, grass, and trees, in maximum height of vegetation, and distance to trees and to shrubs, in foliage diversity, and in distance to water. On the Gebhard Parcel, there were significant differences among transacts in percentage coverage of grasses and of forbs, in distance to nearest shrub, in light levels, and in texture of soil. It is of obvious interest to know whether meadow jumping mice occurred at random on a particular transact. Therefore, each habitat variable at each station of capture of Z. hudsonius was compared against the mean for that variable for the entire transact using Students t-tests. No significant differences were found. That is, stations of capture did not differ from the overall transects on which the stations were located. Landscape Context.—A GIS analysis is in preparation of some aspects of the landscape context of the study sites. Estimates of such variables as corridor width, corridor length, distance to road, and distance to building are being captured from existing database layers or are being digitized from orthophotographs of respective quarter sections (scale, 1 inch = 100 feet, 1:1200) or sections (scale, 1 inch = 200 feet, 1:2400). When completed, those data and analyses will be appended to this report. SUMMARY The meadow jumping mouse (Zapus hudsonius) was studied using a standard protocol on 13 City of Boulder and Boulder County Open Space parcels from May to mid- September 1995, and by less rigorous methods into mid-October. A total of 1429 individual small mammals of 11 species were captured over 17,800 trapnights, a 15