2018 Volume 58 Issue 1 Pages 23-31
To investigate the characteristics of home ranges of Apodemus speciosus, we tracked 17 male and eight female mice using radiotelemetry in an evergreen broad-leaved forest dominated by Pasania edulis and an adjacent Cryptomeria japonica plantation in southern Kyushu. Seventeen and 19 home ranges of males and females, respectively, were estimated by the 95% minimum convex polygon method. Home range sizes and distances between them successively detected during the night became larger during the acorn dropping season, from late September to late November, and one mouse moved approximately 100 m within three hours. Home ranges sometimes overlapped among mice in the boundary area of the two forests. Spatial arrangement and size of home ranges, and movement within home ranges of Apodemus speciosus, varied between individuals. Among them, three mice had home ranges that extended into both forests and nests in the cedar plantation during the acorn dropping season. They constantly moved from the cedar plantation to the broad-leaved forest and vice versa. Such mice are thought to contribute to seed dispersal from the broad-leaved forest to its adjacent conifer plantation.
