Small mammal populations, vegetational, cover, and hunting use of an Ohio strip-mined area [Petites populations de mammifères, utilisation de la végétation, du couvert et de la chasse dans une zone d'extraction minière].

Résumé

A 1,846-hectare area in Perry County, Ohio, about 60% of which had been stripmined for coal, was studied in 1973-74 to identify major vegetation types, gather population indices of small mammals, and determine hunter use. Three distinct cover types on unmined land—old field, old field-pine, and woods—and three on mined land—brush-hardwoods, hardwoods, and non vegetated—were identified. Vegetational changes since 1966 included the loss of dominant black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) and improved growth of other plants. Whitefooted mice (Peromyscus leucopus), cottontail rabbits {Sylvilagus floridanus), and shorttail shrews (Blarina brevicauda) were the most common of 15 species of small mammals captured in 21,256 trap nights. Woodchucks (Marmota monax), also common, may be important on strip-mined areas as a provider of dens. Trapping success for some species, greater than in 1966, could not be attributed to the influence of land reclamation. Cover type may have been related to trapping success for some species, but no clear-cut relationship of a species to stripped or unstripped land was evident. Hunting pressure on small game was light and was largely by local residents, as in 1966. Availability of public, unmined lands in southeast Ohio probably will insure a continued low use of the study area by non-local persons.