FIRE EFFECTS AND USE
WILDLIFE SPECIES: Perognathus parvus | Great Basin Pocket Mouse 



DIRECT FIRE EFFECTS ON ANIMALS : 
Fire has little direct effect on fossorial mammals in their burrows
[22].  Since Great Basin pocket mice are mostly active at night at all
times of the year, and tend to aestivate during the hot, dry periods
when wildfire usually occurs, fire probably has little direct impact on
Great Basin pocket mice.


HABITAT RELATED FIRE EFFECTS : 
Great Basin pocket mice tend to converge on recent burns.  They were
adundant in early stages of plant succession following wildfire in a big
sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) community in Washoe County, Nevada.
Great Basin pocket mice comprised 67 percent of all rodents present on
burned sites and 55 percent of all rodents present on unburned sites
(averaged over postfire years 1-3) [29].  In a short-term study in Lava
Beds National Park, California,  Great Basin pocket mice were most
adundant on burned sites following June prescribed burning of a western
juniper (Juniperus occidentalis)-antelope bitterbrush-curlleaf mountain
mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius) community.  During the first 2
postfire months, 26 Great Basin pocket mice were trapped on the burn and
16 were trapped on the unburned control.  By September, Great Basin
pocket mouse use of burned and unburned areas was about equal (13 and 12
trappings, respectively) [15].

Great Basin pocket mouse populations can increase greatly when fire is
followed by favorable precipitation the next growing season.  A wildfire
in pristine big sagebrush/bluebunch wheatgrass (Pseudoroegneria spicata)
on 13 August, 1973, was followed by above-average precipitation (330 mm
in 1974 compared to 120 mm in 1973) and high plant productivity in 1974.
The Great Basin pocket mouse population had been censused prior to the
wildfire.  The numer of individuals trapped on transects in 1973 and 1974
was [22]:
                                     
        1973             1974
     __________________________
     June:  20*       June:  15
      Oct:   4         Oct: 150
      Nov:   0         Nov: 130
     __________________________
     *prefire census 

Prescribed fire apparently slightly reduced Great Basin pocket mouse
adundance in a singleleaf pinyon-Utah juniper (Pinus monophylla-
Juniperus osteosperma) community in east-central Nevada.  Average number
of Great Basin pocket mice caught on transects was [31]:

                                             Burn 
                    Burned     Unburned     ecotone                   
___________________________________________________
postfire year 1      0.5         0.8          ---
postfire year 2      1.3         1.8          1.3
___________________________________________________

Cheatgrass:  Fire in cheatgrass can favor Great Basin pocket mice when
fire is followed by above-average precipitation.  On the Columbia River
plain of south-central Washington, Brandt and Rickard [6] found Great
Basin pocket mouse numbers were greater in recently burned areas (3
years since wildfire) dominated almost exclusively by cheatgrass than in
big sagebrush-cheatgrass areas.  Great Basin pocket mouse numbers were
greatest, however, in antelope bitterbrush-Indian ricegrass communities.
Numbers were probably greatest in the native plant community because
cheatgrass production is unpredictable.  Although it is often high, it
can be very low in dry years.  Gano and Rickard [16] found Great Basin
pocket mice had greater long-term survival rates in shrub-native grass
stands than in cheatgrass stands.  Following a 1963 wildfire that burned
10,095 acres (4,038 ha) of an antelope bitterbrush-big sagebrush
community in south-central Washington, and a 1973 repeat wildfire that
consumed even more acreage, burned areas become dominated by cheatgrass.
From 1974 to 1979, a Great Basin pocket mouse population on the burn
showed greater year-to-year fluctuation than a population on the
unburned control.  By spring 1978, Great Basin pocket mice were
estimated to be 3 times more adundant on unburned areas than on burned
areas.  In 1978, following a year of low plant productivity due to
drought, 15 Great Basin pocket mice were trapped on the unburned
control, while only one individual was trapped on the burn [16].

Eight years after wildfire on the Doyle Wildlife Management Area near
Reno, Nevada, the burned area was dominated by cheatgrass, skeleton weed
(Lygodesmia spinosa), buckwheat (Eriogonum nudum), and desert peach
(Prunus andersonii).  Unburned areas were dominated by antelope
bitterbrush, big sagebrush, and desert peach.  Great Basin pocket mouse
density was greater on unburned areas than on burned areas.  Fifteen
individuals were trapped on an unburned area, while only one individual
was trapped on the burn [10].



FIRE USE : 



REFERENCES : 
NO-ENTRY

Related categories for Wildlife Species: Perognathus parvus | Great Basin Pocket Mouse