Habitat associations of the rodent community in a Grand Prairie preserve

We measured habitat associations in the rodent fauna at the Lyndon B. Johnson National Grassland in north-central Texas from May to August 2011. We recorded five species: hispid cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) was most abundant, followed by deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus), hispid pocket mouse (Chaetodipus hispidus), fulvous harvest mouse (Reithrodontomys fulvescens), and white-footed mouse (P. leucopus). Cotton rat density increased with grass cover; this effect was stronger for lower and middle quantiles of the abundance distribution. We found weak habitat correlates for P. maniculatus and R. fulvescens. This report is one of few describing the mammalian fauna of the vanishing Grand Prairie ecoregion.