POPULATION-DYNAMICS OF, AND HABITAT USE BY, AUSTRALIAN NATIVE RODENTSIN WET SCLEROPHYLL FOREST, TASMANIA .2. PSEUDOMYS HIGGINSI (RODENTIA,MURIDAE)

A local population of Tasmanian long-tailed mice, Pseudomys higginsi, occupying an area of wet sclerophyll forest at low density was studied for 13 months using mark-recapture techniques. Individuals in the tra ppable population were readily recaught (29 individuals caught 183 tim es). Demographic data are presented for a single age cohort born in 19 89 (21 individuals trapped 126 times) and surviving until the end of t he trapping programme (April 1990). Habitat use was investigated by co mparing data from individuals active within four contiguous areas of f orest displaying structural and floristic heterogeneity. Trap-revealed habitat use indicated that P. higginsi was completely absent from are as of thickest ground cover where densities of the sympatric murid, Ra ttus lutreolus velutinus, were highest. Conversely, captures of P. hig ginsi were highest in areas of boulder scree where captures of R. l. v elutinus were lower than expected. Relative numbers of individuals act ive in each macrohabitat group are examined and a role for interspecif ic competition between these rodent species is inferred.