24 Mary K. Clark, David S. Lee, John B. Funderburg, Jr. 



on recent habitat information it seems that these two rodents are ecolog- 

 ically similar in the Southeast. 



Mus musculus (Linnaeus), House Mouse. This is the only exotic spe- 

 cies that we encountered regularly in our study. Although common 

 along road shoulders and windrows in Dare County, and in suburban 

 sites in drained or altered bays in Bladen County, it was not found in 

 any natural sites. 



Carnivora: Carnivores 



Vulpes fulva fulva (Desmarest), Red Fox. The Red Fox apparently 

 avoids pocosins and is uncommon on sand rims. Agricultural workers 

 in Dare County informed us that Red Foxes did not appear locally until 

 extensive areas had been cleared for agriculture. 



Urocyon cinereoargenteus cinereoargenteus (Schreber), Gray Fox. 

 Unlike the Red Fox, Urocyon is common in most densely wooded habi- 

 tats, including pocosins. Individuals are often seen running on sand rims 

 and ridges between Carolina bays and stream-head forests. 



Ursus americanus americanus (Pallas), Black Bear. With the excep- 

 tion of the Sandhills sites in Hoke and Moore counties, bear popula- 

 tions still persist in all of our study areas. In 200 field-days we saw five 

 individuals, and fresh tracks were found on about a dozen occasions. 

 Pocosin communities contribute to the diets of Black Bears. Buell and 

 Cain (1943), for example, reported bears feeding on Smilax fruits, and 

 on young Smilax vines growing from seeds in bear scats. 



Radio telemetry tracking of bears has been conducted in Dare (Hardy 

 1974) and Bladen counties (Hamilton 1978; Landers et al. 1979). In 

 Dare County bears appeared to use all cover types, including pocosins 

 (Hardy 1974). The preferred habitats were characterized by the presence 

 of diverse and generally dense vegetation and close proximity to rela- 

 tively extensive roadless areas. Hardy (1974) listed the order of habitat 

 preference as forested areas, older burns, more recent burns, and clear- 

 cuts. Landers et al. (1979) related seasonal habitat use in Bladen County 

 to foraging, denning and escape behavior. Carolina bays, which com- 

 prise about 44 percent of the county, received the most use by foraging 

 bears and contributed the greatest volume of natural foods to their diet. 

 Corn was a major component of the diet in every month, and the prin- 

 cipal food item during seven months of the year. All radio-monitored 

 bears that denned were found to bed on nests on the ground in very 

 dense thickets of Fetterbush and greenbrier. Large swamps provided the 

 best escape cover, which is probably the most critical component of 

 Black Bear habitat (Landers et al. 1979). Of 45 known bear mortalities 



