Meadow Jumping Mouse (Zapus hudsonius)

County List:

Rule:

Mixed Forested/Nonforested or Nonforested Landscapes

      (Assorted Hardwoods (Regen))
      or (Spruce/Fir (Regen))
      or Grass
      or Upland Brush
      or Savanna
      or Fields/Pasture
      or Sedge Meadow
      or Lowland Brush

Habitat List:

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Literature:

It resides in a variety of habitats, including fallow fields, woodland edges, and shrubby thickets. It is most abundant in moist sites containing a lush growth of grasses and forbs, and it particularly favors damp meadows, streamside vegetation, and marsh borders.

The meadow jumping mouse hides its summer nest in a log, under natural debris, or in an underground chamber.

Seeds, particularly grass seeds, dominate the diet. It also eats such fruits as raspberries, blueberries, and currants, as well as fungi, beetles, and caterpillars. In spring when seeds are scarce and fruits have yet to appear, as much as 50% of the diet may come from animal matter.

Habitat: Moist, open, grassy, and brushy marshes and meadows, willow-alder thickets occurring along water courses, swamps and transition areas between lowlands and wooded uplands and mixed, occasionally dry meadows. Seems to prefer areas with numerous shrubs and small trees.

Special Habitat Requirements: Herbaceous groundcover, loose soils for burrowing.

Habitat Preferences: The meadow jumping mouse is apt to be found in all Michigan habitats except extremely heavy woodlands. Preferred habitats are open lands covered with mixed grasses and forbs, scattered shrubs, grassy willow-alder thickets, and early stages of forest growth (both deciduous and coniferous), as well as edges between these plant types. The meadow jumping mouse also responds favorably to agriculture, especially recently fallowed fields covered with annual weeds and grasses. Most observers, however, find the meadow jumping mouse occurs in greater numbers when the above habitats are located in poorly drained situations or adjacent to marshes, streams, or ponds. In Michigan, most studies tend to correlate abundance with moist environments, especially wet meadow and old field habitats, in Clinton County, Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties, Livingston County, Marquette County, and Montmorency County. However, Whitaker in his classic New York study of this species concluded that standing water or high concentrations of soil moisture only affect local distribution indirectly, as these conditions would certainly influence the growth of favored ground cover of grasses and herbs. Nevertheless, there is some evidence that the meadow jumping mouse requires habitats with high humidities.

Some Michigan habitats in which meadow jumping mice have been taken include grassy meadows, swampy land, and white birch-aspen-hardwood saplings; bluegrass association; reed-canary grass habitat; open grasses, sedges, and shrubs; grassy marsh; and edge of sedge marsh.

Behavior: Meadow jumping mice are excellent diggers and construct ground burrows although they have been taken in burrows excavated by other mammals. The average nest is constructed of grasses and leaves formed into a round, baseball-size structure with a side entrance. Nests in underground burrows occur as far as 10 inches below the surface and are usually in well-drained areas. Nests employed in summer often are located at ground level in grass clumps, under logs or protected by roots.

Food Habits: The meadow jumping mouse eats a variety of foods, primarily seeds, fruits and animal materials. After emergence from hibernation in spring, the species may obtain as much as half of its food from animal sources (larvae of moths, butterflies, and beetles). Seeds are utilized but are often in short supply early in the growing season.

Meadow Jumping Mice were more common in the Rubus stage than in all uncut of partially cut stands, the slash stage, and the sapling stage.

Softwood - 3 treatments; uncut, partially cut, and clearcut (slash - Rubus - sapling)

Hardwood - 2 treatments; uncut, partially cut

Spruce/Fir Northern Hardwoods; Red Spruce, Balsam Fir, Sugar Maple, American Beech, and Yellow Birch.