Presentation Details
Does GUD Reveal Why Populations Decline in Wild Mouse Species?

Ashley Castro, Richard Buchholz.

University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi, USA

Abstract


Smaller, isolated populations face elevated extinction risk  when functional traits are impaired by reduced genetic variation. I propose to measure if population size predicts functional behavior loss in wild cotton mice (P. gossypinus) and oldfield mice (P. polionotus). I will use box camera traps to observe giving-up densities (GUD) and time spent at foraging stations under two treatments that vary predation risk (transparent vs. translucent box cover) and handling costs (fine vs. coarse substrate). I will also measure body condition and fluctuating asymmetry as possible morphological indicators of environmental and genetic stress. GUD may reveal functional trait impairment if small-population individuals suffer morphological or physiological deficits that impair sensory or cognitive processing. In addition to conservation of isolated species this experiment addresses whether processes governing population viability are measurable prior to demographic collapse. A detailed methodology and preliminary results will be presented.

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