Food Niche Responses in Southern Texas Small Mammal Communities

Authors: Alexis R. Pence, Camryn M. Kiel, Andrea Montalvo, Brian L. Pierce, Leonard A. Brennan, Michael L. Morrison

Land managers interested in maintaining species diversity often face difficult decisions when managing cattle grazing. Choosing a successful stocking regime and intensity for a particular region can be difficult. Landowners in the southern Texas region face challenges identifying successful stocking regimes or grazing intensity because of high temperatures from April through October and frequent droughts that often last up to or longer than 3 years. Cattle grazing is a major southern Texas agricultural industry that can have profound impacts that alter the diversity and structure of vegetation. Small mammals are an appropriate focal group for understanding ecosystem changes because of their rapid reproductive cycles and successful use in monitoring ecosystem conditions. From 2015 to 2020, we conducted a small mammal mark–recapture study to understand the impacts of grazing, along with variability in temperature and rainfall, on small mammal abundance in southern Texas. Sampling occurred within four different cattle grazing treatments to provide insight on cattle interactions with small mammals. We analyzed changes in small mammal abundance between three groups based on their food preferences: omnivores, granivores, and herbivores. For all three groups, there was a negative influence of temperature, but not precipitation and year, on abundance. With landscapes changing with time, land managers could use these data as a baseline for monitoring small mammal abundance in this region and potentially other similar native rangelands.

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