DO FLORIDA MICE (Podomys floridanus) CLIMB TO ESCAPE THREATS, OR DO THEY CLIMB ROUTINELY?

摘要

The Florida mouse (Podomys floridanus) is one of two mammals endemic to Florida (Jones and Layne 1993). Historically the Florida mouse was assigned to the genus Peromyscus, the deer mice, and the monotypic sub-genus Podomys; Carleton (1980) elevated Podomys to genus level based on multiple traits. In comparative studies the Florida mouse has been found to swim (King et al. 1968), to be unexceptional in nest building (Klein and Layne 1978) and digging (Layne and Ehrhart 1970) in a laboratory setting, to lack arboreal tendencies (King et al. 1968; Layne 1970), and to be closely tied to gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) burrows as the location for a secondary burrow system assumed to be wholly or in part of its own making (Layne 1990; Jones and Franz 1990). Layne (1990) has summarized the mix of behavioral attributes of the Florida mouse as shaping perhaps the most terrestrial of the regional peromyscines.