Notes on the Mammals of Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties, Michigan, 1920: Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, Number 109Dice, Lee R. (Lee Raymond)
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Notes on the Mammals of Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties, Michigan, 1920: Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, Number 109
In the Cisco Lake Region the drainage is not so good as in the vicinity
of Little Girl's Point, and the forests of that district are of a type
somewhat intermediate between the wet hardwood forest and the dry
hardwood forest. In the Cisco Lake Region the topography is much
broken, there being many small hills and ridges, and many small
depressions, often poorly drained. In the damp depressions, if not wet
enough for a bog, arbor-vitae and hemlock are common, while on the
ridges sugar maple and linden are characteristic, though hemlock occurs
here sparingly also. There is accordingly much local variation in tree
forms, but the whole forest is decidedly of a hardwood type.
The dry hardwood forests of the Little Girl's Point Region are
inhabited by many deer-mice, while only a few of this species are found
in the wet hardwood forests near Gogebic Lake, bob-tailed shrews being
there the most abundant mammal and red-backed voles being common, both
of which are rare in the other districts. In the dry hardwood forest
near Little Girl's Point four woodland jumping mice (Napaeozapus) were
taken, while in the Cisco Lake Region only two were taken in a period
twice as long, and at Gogebic Lake none were secured. These
observations indicate that moisture conditions in hardwood forests have
an important influence on the mammal fauna.
_Mountains_
_Rock-bluff habitat:_ Rock exposures are rare in the region studied.
However there are several high hills with steep exposures of rock a
short distance north of Ironwood and Bessemer. These hills could not be
studied in the time available, and the only cliff examined was on a
small range of hills northeast of the station of Lake Gogebic. On one
of these hills is a nearly perpendicular rock cliff about 200 feet high
and facing to the southward. The small talus slope at the bottom is
overgrown with shrubs and trees, and on the small ledges and gullies of
the face of the cliff a few small trees, shrubs, and herbs are also
growing. The most conspicuous plants of the rock habitat are scrub
oaks, aspens, and heaths. No trapping was done in the habitat, and no
notes on mammals were secured. Probably the mammal fauna is not very
large.
_Mountain-heath habitat:_ A narrow, poorly developed belt of heath
fringes the upper edge of the rock cliff examined north of Lake
Gogebic. Characteristic plants are the blueberry and bearberry, mixed
with creeping juniper and a few scattered grasses. The habitat is very
narrow and is closely encroached upon by shrubs and trees, such as
sumac, cherry, white pine, jack pine, oaks, aspens, and paper birch.
Signs of fox were noted at the edge of the cliff, but no trapping was
carried on here.
_Air_
_Aerial habitat:_ The only aerial mammals are the bats, of which four
species were taken during the summer. The flying squirrel is not
considered to be a true aerial form.
_Burns and Clearings_
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