Value of eastern woodrat (neotoma floridana) houses.

Abstract

The eastern woodrat (Neotoma floridana) builds houses which are constructed via the successive combined efforts of many occupants, and are unequal in size and structure. Because not all houses are equal, I attempted to establish that houses are of unequal value, and hence are not occupied randomly. I assumed that reproductive females should occupy higher quality houses because these individuals should incur the highest cost in occupying poor quality houses. A poor quality house would put the health and safety of the female and her litter at risk. House quality can be determined by quantifying the degree to which the house fulfills the needs of the occupant. I examined house quality with regard to three variables: 1) house insulation, 2) distance to closest neighbor, and 3) house volume. The dependent variables of house insulation, distance between houses, and house volume cannot be predicted by the independent variables of sex, weight, and reproductive stage of house occupant. However, adult female woodrats occupied houses significantly more than predicted, based on the sex ratio of all woodrats trapped. Thus, house occupancy could be a major factor in assessing house value. Key words: Eastern woodrat, Neotoma floridana, territory value, sex ration.