Abstract
During a 47-month live-trap study conducted in a remnant grass- land in west-central Kansas, Sigmodon hispidus preferred habitats with dense under- growth and protective overstory and used less favored habitats primarily when population densities were high. Seasonal home ranges based on the exclusive boundary-strip method averaged significantly larger (P < 0.01) for males (0.96 acre) than for females (0.54 acre). Males were more nomadic than females, but both sexes traversed smaller areas during periods of high density than during low density. No indication of territorial defense was evident. The geographic range of the hispid cotton rat, Sigmodon hispidus Say and Ord, extends northward from Panama as far as southern Nebraska (Hall and Kelson, 1959: 673; Genoways and Schlitter, 1967). The continuing northward dispersal of this Neotropical immi- grant onto the Great Plains (Hoffmann and Jones, 1970) during the past 25 years has been well documented (Cockrum, 1948, 1952; Hall, 1955; Jones, 1960, 1964). As the range of the species has moved north- ward, cotton rats must have coped with a progression of different environmental factors and habitats. The purposes of this study were to elucidate the environmental interactions, habitat preference, home range, greatest distance traveled, and territoriality of Sigmodon hispi- dus in a mature grassland near the present northern limit of the range of the species.
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