Mammals of Carolina Bays 2 1 



head forests, and we have seen them regularly taking cover and foraging 

 along the edges of pocosins. Although savannas would appear to pro- 

 vide ideal habitat for this squirrel, it occurs in them only when the 

 savannas are adjacent to upland areas with oaks that provide the mast 

 on which the squirrel depends. Most savanna records are from the fall. 



Glaucomys volans volans (Linnaeus), Southern Flying Squirrel. The 

 Southern Flying Squirrel is probably present at most sites inhabited by 

 Gray or Fox squirrels, but we have no records from pocosins. A nest 

 with young was discovered in the 100-foot fire tower at Jones Lake, 

 Bladen County, in 1983, and the species is abundant on sand rims at the 

 Hoke County study site where we regularly found Glaucomys in hollow trees 

 and bird nest-boxes in ecotonal areas of stream-head bay forests and a 

 Carolina bay. It is present but apparently not common in savannas, and 

 often is found in cavities made by the Red-cockaded Woodpecker, 

 Picoides borealis. 



Castor canadensis Kuhl, Beaver. The Beaver was extirpated from 

 North Carolina in the early 1900s, but was later restocked and is mak- 

 ing a successful comeback. Castor is not a conspicuous or important 

 part of the mammal fauna of pocosins and Carolina bays at this time. 

 Active colonies exist on the Hoke County study area at McCain, in 

 close proximity to Jerome Bog and Suggs Mill Pond, Bladen County, 

 and along the southwestern edge of the Dismal Swamp. Flooding and 

 removal of many larger trees by beavers maintain boggy areas in which 

 many of the characteristic pocosin shrubs thrive. Both the southeastern 

 Castor c. carolinensis (from Alabama), the subspecies native to North 

 Carolina, and the northern form, canadensis, have been stocked on 

 North Carolina's Coastal Plain. 



Oryzomys palustris palustris (Harlan), Rice Rat. The Rice Rat prefers 

 marshes and other open, wet areas abundant with grasses, rushes, and 

 sedges, but such habitats do not usually occur in those pocosins or 

 Carolina bays with intermediate or advanced successional development. 

 One specimen of Oryzomys was trapped in a clearing at Little Singletary 

 Lake, a Carolina bay in Bladen County, and another was taken in an 

 evergreen bay forest in Dare County. Fire and man-made disturbances 

 create or maintain early successional stages, and in such habitats the 

 Rice Rat is often abundant. 



Reithrodontomys humulis humulis (Audubon and Bachman), Eastern 

 Harvest Mouse. Typically associated with early successional stages of 

 pocosin communities, this mouse appeared to be equally common on 

 both wet and dry soils, and was also present on higher ground adjacent 

 to estuarine systems. Harvest mice were most common in unnatural dis- 



