BULLETIN FLORIDA MUSEUM NATURAL HISTORY VOL. 38, PT. 11(7)


prescribed burs on three independent sandhills (Blue Pond, Longleaf Pine Pasture, and
Smith Lake) so I could examine the response to burns. Burrows at Blue Pond were trapped
for 2442 trapnights March-November 1988; at Longleaf Pine for 867 trapnights July-
November 1987; and at Smith Lake for 3092 trapnights in 1985 (Jones 1990). Eisenberg's
unpublished trapping results from Smith Lake (1983) were included in this analysis. These
sandhills are on three-year rotations of prescribed burs, but differ in area and seasonality
of bums. Trapping results on burned sandhills were compared with those on smaller,
neighboring sites that were not burned.
 Because trapping effort and area among the three sandhills were unequal, I calculated
numbers of individuals per 100 trapnights per hectare. The G-test was used to test the null
hypothesis that equal numbers of mice were captured at burned and unburned areas.
 I determined the home range sizes on the Ordway sandhills by comparing the results
of trapping on grids and at burrows on the Anderson-Cue, Blue Pond, and Smith Lake
sandhills. A third technique, the use of fluorescent powder as discussed by Lemen and
Freeman (1985), was attempted unsuccessfully (Jones 1990). Two grids on Anderson-Cue
were trapped three consecutive nights per month, August 1987-November 1988, for a total
of 6400 trapnights. One grid on Smith Lake was trapped for 3900 trapnights, April 1987-
November 1988. Podomys was trapped at burrows at Anderson-Cue 1986-1988, Blue Pond
in 1988, and Smith Lake from 1984 through 1988. As described by Jones (1990), all three
sandhills differed in area, vegetation, and elevation.


 RESULTS


 Numbers of Podomys were more constant on burned sandhills than on the unburned
areas, although estimated densities fluctuated on all three sandhills (Fig. 2). Apparent
densities of Podomys at unburned burrows occasionally appeared high, which seemed to be
an artifact of the small area of unburned sandhill; all animals captured on the three
unburned sandhills were captured on edges of the unburned areas. More individuals were
caught in burned areas following a fire (Table 1). Significantly more individuals were
captured on burned sites than at unburned burrows (G = 10.597, p < 0.005). There was no
significant difference in trapping success between the three months immediately preceding
and following the burns. Home ranges of 13 animals captured at least five times on burned
areas did not significantly shift or change in size following the fire. There was little or no
evidence of mortality directly attributable to fire. On Smith Lake, 87% of the 15
individuals trapped the month before the bur were captured the month after the fire; on
Blue Pond and LongleafPine, all mice trapped before the fire were captured the month after
(i.e. 100% survivorship).
 Trapping success on burned and unburned sites also was compared by examining
trapping effort expressed as trapnights per total number of captures per hectare (Table 2);
i.e. how much effort was required in an area to trap a mouse. No effort was made to make
trapnights equivalent. Regardless of the total number of trapnights, more time was needed
to catch a mouse on the unburned sites. For all five years on the Smith Lake sandhill, the
numbers of trapnights required to catch a mouse were much lower and more consistent year
to year on the burned area than on the unburned area.