Richness, abundance, and habitat relations of rodents in the Lang Bian Mountains of southern Vietnam

We sampled rodents in the Lang Bian Mountains of southern Viet Nam in June 1997 (rainy season) and January 1998 (dry season) by live-trapping. Eight t ransects in pine (Pinus) savanna and primary forest were sampled for 10 con secutive nights. We captured 11 species of rodents, including 10 murids and one sciurid. Niviventer fulvescens was the most frequently-captured specie s and apparently was a habitat generalist. That species was captured in bot h pine savanna and primary forest, but a distinct shift in habitat use occu rred between the two seasons. During the rainy season, individuals were cap tured frequently in both habitats, but during the dry season, N. fulvescens was restricted mostly to forest. Fluctuation in resource abundance was the most likely explanation for that habitat shift; enormous quantities of aco rns were present in the dry season, but few resources were available in the rainy season. Other species of rodents were captured less frequently, and several species appeared to be more restricted in their habitat distributio ns than N. fulvescens.