Reproductive Strategies of Meadow Voles, Hispid Cotton Rats, and Eastern Harvest Mice in Virginia

• Main Author: Rose, Robert K.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: ODU Digital Commons 1986
• Subjects: Reproductive strategies; Meadow voles; Hispid cotton rats; Eastern harvest mice; Virginia; Biodiversity; Biology; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Zoology; Arctic
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/biology_fac_pubs/587; https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/context/biology_fac_pubs/article/1605/viewcontent/Reproductive_strategies_of_meadow_voles_1986_OCR.pdf

Patterns of reproduction in small mammals in Virginia were examined by autopsying samples of meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) collected for 23 months near Charlottesville, of hispid cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus) collected for 14 months in Portsmouth, and by evaluating live-caught eastern harvest mice (Reithrodontomys humulis) trapped for 15 months in Suffolk and for 12 months in Chesapeake. The meadow vole, a microtine rodent with a north temperate and sub-arctic distribution throughout North America, suspended breeding during the winter of peak density but not of declining density. High metabolic rates and other adaptations for winter seem to permit frequent production of young then. However, both Sigmodon and Reithrodontomys are subtropical species, and in Virginia are living at and near the northern limits of their distributions, respectively. Sigmodon suspends breeding in mid-autumn and resumes reproduction in late spring in eastern Virginia. The breeding season is slightly longer in Reithrodontomys. Low metabolic rates, lack of development of adaptive behaviors, and other features seem to preclude winter reproduction in theses species with evolutionary histories in the tropics.