An Investigation on the Food Habits of Four Species of Rodents in Captivity

Abstract

Four species of prairie rodents were studied in captivity: the prairie vole, Microtus ochrogaster (Wagner), hispid cotton rat, Sigmodon hispidus Say and Ord, western harvest mouse, Reithrodontomys megalotis (Baird), and deer mouse, Peromyscus maniculatus (Wagner). All of the experimental animals were mature or nearly so and all were trapped on the University of Kansas Natural History Reservation in June 1961. The animals were kept in wire cages in the laboratory at the Reservation. Three voles were placed in one cage and two others in separate cages, two cotton rats were placed in separate cages; a deer mouse and a harvest mouse, also, were each placed in separate cages. The experiment continued over a seven-week period in June and July 1961.