NATURE NOTES FROM ACADIA

WOODLAND JUMPING MOUSE AT ACADIA

During the night of August 24, while trapping for small mammals, a specimen of the Woodland Jumping Mouse (Napaeozapus insignis) was taken. This genus is apparently previously unreported for Mount Desert Island; for no reference to it is found in the list of native mammals of Acadia National Park prepared by Vernon Bailey a few years ago, nor is it included in the various studies of the University of Maine's Summer Biological Station on the fauna of Mt. Desert Island that appeared in the Maine Naturalist from time to time.

The mouse, taken in a trap baited with bacon, was an adult male measuring a total of 220 millimeters (body 83 mm., tail 137 mm.). The locality at which it was secured is a mixed woods of oak, maple, birch, and aspen just beyond the grassy tundra east of Champlain Mountain. The mouse was trapped at the edge of the woods where it merges with the eastern side of the tundra, and where the woodland f oor is densely covered with wild rose, meadowsweet and long grasses. There is apparently some drainage from nearby so that the location appears moderately damp. At this same location the Hudson Bay Jumping Mouse, Short-tailed Shrew and Bonaparte Weasel were also secured.

- M. L. Branin, Ranger-Naturalist
Asst. Professor of Biology
John Carroll University