Small Mammals in Great Dismal Swamp 
91 
Fig. 1. Map showing the location of the live-trap and nest -box study grids (*) 
and the 13 pitfall study grids (•) in the Great Dismal Swamp of Virginia and 
North Carolina. The boundary encloses the current Great Dismal Swamp 
National Wildlife Refuge. The inset at upper left shows the location of the 
map area in eastern Virginia and North Carolina. 
chosen because of their proven effectiveness in catching shrews, lemmings, 
and other species that are difficult to catch with conventional snap or 
live traps. Ten grids were placed in a range of nonforested habitats, and 
three grids were set in mature forests. Locations of the study grids in the 
Dismal Swamp are shown in Fig. 1. 
RESULTS 
A total of 359 small mammals were taken during the 18 months 
encompassed by the three studies (Table 1). Live and pitfall trapping 
yielded similar results, both in numbers of individuals (155 and 159) and 
in numbers of species (10 and 9). The nest boxes yielded 45 individuals 
of two arboreal species. In the three studies collectively, the three most 
numerous species were B. brevicauda; the eastern harvest mouse, 
Reithrodontomys humulis humulis (Audubon and Bachman); and P. /. 
leucopus. Five or fewer specimens were taken of each of the following: 
