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



upland habitats is not surprising. In other words, species that may have 

 been confined to pocosins in the past because of ecological restrictions 

 are now able to exploit a wide array of disturbed community types as a 

 result of agricultural and other activities. 



Since pocosins and Carolina bays are extensive on the outer Coast- 

 al Plain, dispersal of small lowland mammals from one to another is 

 feasible. River floodplain swamps can also facilitate dispersals of pocosin 

 colonizers. Although these swamps would provide climatic buffers sim- 

 ilar to those found in pocosins and Carolina bays, their frequent and 

 rapid flooding and periods of protracted submergence make them un- 

 suited to support permanent small mammal populations. Compared to 

 adjacent upland communities, our trapping experience indicates that 

 Coastal Plain swamps have extremely depauperate mammal faunas. 



Bears, deer, bobcats and, until recent times, probably panthers and 

 wolves, frequented pocosins and Carolina bays in the Coastal Plain. 

 Within the last century most of those species had become confined to 

 these areas, but this may have been an artifact of uncontrolled harvest 

 before modern game management programs were developed and not a 

 reflection of the specific habitat needs of these animals. Populations 

 simply persisted in the inaccessible reaches of extensive pocosins longer 

 than they were able to in other parts of the Coastal Plain. In eastern 

 North Carolina, White-tailed Deer became restricted to a few pocosin 

 areas by the turn of the century, and only in the last 30 years or so have 

 they again become common in other areas and habitats. 



Preservation and Management 



We are concerned about pocosin preservation, but find the argu- 

 ment that these areas harbor many rare and unique faunal elements to 

 be overstated, at least for mammals and birds (personal observations). 

 As we have shown, pocosin mammal faunas generally consist of species 

 with wide ecological tolerances and abilities to exploit early successional 

 stages and areas disrupted by human activities. Pocosin areas should be 

 preserved for a variety of reasons, but our present knowledge of the 

 vertebrate fauna leads us to suggest that wildlife values for mammals 

 (except the Black Bear), may not be a primary concern. Our results indi- 

 cate that some types of alterations, when followed by normal succes- 

 sional patterns, actually increase species diversity and density of mam- 

 mals and birds in Carolina bays and pocosins. Unpublished results of 

 research by others indicate that this may be true of a variety of verte- 

 brates. This is not surprising, because many such alterations simply 

 change pocosin habitats in ways similar to those in which they are mod- 

 ified by fire and fluctuating water tables. 



Lee and Funderburg (1977) discussed the conservation status of 



