NOTES ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL AND ECOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION OF RELICT POPULATIONS OF SYNAPTOMYS-COOPERI (RODENTIA, ARVICOLIDAE) FROM EASTERN NORTH-CAROLINA

As part of a study to evaluate the effects of forest management on Nor th Carolina pocosin communities, small mammals were trapped between Ma y 1991 and May 1992 in 15 stands in Carteret, Craven and Jones countie s, North Carolina. Captures included three Synaptomys cooperi, extendi ng the known range of the species in eastern North Carolina about 170 km south of Dismal Swamp localities. These specimens, and others colle cted since 1977, indicate that the paucity of records between 1896 and the 1970s is the result of ineffective trapping methods and insuffici ent fieldwork in appropriate habitat. S. cooperi is more widely distri buted in eastern North Carolina than previously reported. Populations are disjunct and appear to be Pleistocene relicts.