Fig. 2. Graphs of population structure showing the monthly changes in the mean percentages of juveniles, subadults, adults and males in samples from the three study areas. The extent to which sex ratios in samples were affected by trapping procedure was not determined. A possibility considered was that the greater wandering tendency of males (Blair, 1940:154; Hamilton, 1937c:261; Townsend, 1935:98) impaired the formation of trap habits (Chitty and Kempson, 1949:536) on their part and thus unbalanced the sex ratios of the samples. If this were the explanation, the apparent sex ratio on larger areas would more nearly approximate the true ratio, and the frequency of capture of females would exceed that of males. The evidence is somewhat equivocal. In the populations described here the mean number of captures per individual per month was 2.31 for females, which was significantly greater (at the one per cent level) than the 2.20 captures per individual per month which was the mean number for males. This difference supports the idea that differences in habits between the sexes result in distorted sex ratios in samples obtained by live-trapping. Mean percentages of males did not, however, differ significantly between the House Field-Quarry Field samples and the samples from the Fitch trapping area, nearly five times as large. Three age classes, juvenal, subadult and adult, were separated on the basis of condition of pelage. The percentage of adults in populations varied seasonally (Fig. 2). January, February and March were the months when the adult fraction of the population was highest and October and November were low points, with May and June showing percentages almost as low. The only marked variation in this seasonal pattern occurred in July and August, 1952, when the percentage of adults rose sharply. This was due to a depression in the reproductive rate during the dry summer of 1952, which is discussed later in this report. Juveniles made up only a small fraction of the population from December through March and a relatively large fraction in the October-November and May-June periods (Fig. 2). Again, July and August of 1952 were exceptions to the pattern as the percentages of juveniles in these months fell to midwinter levels. As expected, the curve of the percentages of subadults in the population followed that of the juveniles and preceded that of the adults. The mean percentages for the thirty month period for which data were available were: adults, 77.72 ± 4.48 per cent; subadults, 14.06 ± 3.14 per cent; and juveniles, 8.22 ± 2.62 per cent. Seasonal and yearly changes in the population structure occurred, with notable variation in the ratio of Since some of the juveniles did not move enough to be readily trapped, the real percentage of juveniles in the population was probably far greater than that shown by trapping data. I tried, Fig. 3. Percentages of individuals captured each month surviving in subsequent months. The graph shows differential survival according to time of birth. Individuals born in autumn seem to have a longer life expectancy. The numbers on the lines refer to months of first capture. A study of the age groups in each month's population revealed a As a consequence of the differential survival, most of the breeding population in the spring was made up of animals born the previous October and November. Fig. 4 shows that in February, when the percentage of breeding females ordinarily began to rise, 51.6 per cent of the population was born in the previous October and November. Voles born in these two months continued to form a large part of the population through March (45.1 per cent), April (38.5 per cent), May (23.9 per cent), June (18.7 per cent) and July (16.2 per cent) (Fig. 4). These percentages suggest that the habitat conditions in October and November were probably important in determining the population level for at least the first half of the next year. Fig. 4. Differential survival of voles according to month when first caught. Each column represents the percentage of the monthly sample first caught in each of the preceding months. Those voles caught first in October and November survived longer than those first caught in other months. Relatively few individuals remained in the population as long as one year. |