Small Mammals in Openings in Virginia's Dismal 



Swamp 



Robert K. Rose 



1 



Department of Biological Sciences, 

 Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia 23508 



ABSTRACT. — In a study of small mammals of openings in the 

 Dismal Swamp of Virginia, seven species were obtained using pitfall 

 traps. Samples included several species rarely caught in the Swamp 

 — seven specimens of the Dismal Swamp subspecies of the southern 

 bog lemming, Synaptomys cooperi helaletes, the first collected in this 

 century; two least shrews, Cryptotis parva; and 15 southeastern shrews, 

 Sorex longirostris fisheri. Results are compared to previous studies, 

 conducted primarily in forested habitats, in which the white-footed 

 mouse, Peromyscus leucopus, and the golden mouse, Ochrotomys 

 nuttalli, were numerically dominant. 



INTRODUCTION 



The Great Dismal Swamp, originally occupying much of the area 

 between Virginia's James River drainage system and North Carolina's 

 Albemarle Sound, has long been recognized as a vegetationally distinc- 

 tive region with many unusual features. It has been subjected to clear- 

 ing, burning, ditching, farming, and other land-use practices during the 

 past 250 years, has long experienced a dropping water table, and is now 

 approximately 850 km 2 (85,000 ha) in extent (Carter 1979). In 1974 the 

 Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (GDSNWR) was estab- 

 lished. At the end of 1980 it was 41,026 ha in extent, 24 percent (9,866 

 ha) of it in North Carolina. Kirk (1979) provided an excellent summary 

 of the history and lore of the Swamp. 



Although there are conflicting historical reports about the abun- 

 dance of wildlife in the Swamp (see Handley 1979), it is clear that the 

 survival of some species there has been aided by remoteness and limited 

 access to the public, as well as by the existence of large tracts of suitable 

 habitat. For example, the only population of the black bear, Ursus amer- 

 icanus americanus Pallas, on the Virginia Coastal Plain, and perhaps 

 the largest populations of the bobcat, Lynx rufus floridanus Rafinesque, 

 are found in the Refuge and environs. However, its remoteness and rela- 

 tive inaccessibility have also apparently contributed to the dearth of 

 studies of birds and mammals in the Swamp; apart from species lists, 

 comparatively little is known about the wildlife. 



The first systematic studies of mammals in the Swamp were con- 

 ducted by the Bureau of Biological Surveys, U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, during the period 1895-1898. Handley (1979), in an exhaustive 

 review that included an examination of field notebooks and unpub- 



Brimleyana No. 6: 45-50. December 1981. 45 



