Notes on the Mammals of Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties, Michigan, 1920: Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, Number 109 — John Shaqi
Notes on the Mammals of Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties, Michigan, 1920: Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, Number 109Dice, Lee R. (Lee Raymond)
History
Notes on the Mammals of Gogebic and Ontonagon Counties, Michigan, 1920: Occasional Papers of the Museum of Zoology, Number 109
The habitats studied in Gogebic and Ontonagon counties but every
habitat has been listed which seems to form a distinct type of mammal
environment. We are firmly convinced that it is better to describe a
great number of habitats rather than to lump different kinds of
environments together. It is infinitely easier for a later worker to
combine several habitats, which have been split too finely, than it is
to separate the component habitats which may have been lumped together
under one name.
No attempt is made to give complete lists of the plants found in each
habitat, but only the more conspicuous plants or those of special
importance to the mammals are mentioned. The plant names used are
mostly taken from Darlington's list of Gogebic County plants.[1]
_Exposed Shores_
_Open-water habitat:_ This habitat includes the areas of open water
with no rooted vegetation in the deeper parts of the lakes and rivers.
On Lake Superior at Little Girl's Point this habitat comes directly to
the beach, for the wave action on this exposed point is sufficient to
prevent the growth of plants along the shore. In Gogebic Lake and in
the smaller lakes of the Cisco Lake Region there are also many parts
where there is no rooted vegetation along shore. This habitat,
therefore, covers by far the larger part of the aquatic conditions of
northwestern Michigan. We secured no records of mammals for this
habitat, and, though some aquatic species must occasionally occur in
the open water along lake shores, they are rare there, and are
practically absent from the areas of open water farther out in the
lakes.
_Beach habitat:_ The shore of Lake Superior at Little Girl's Point is
subjected to heavy pounding by the lake waves, leading to the formation
of a well-developed beach. To the east of the point the beach for some
distance is five to ten yards wide, mostly of small gravel, with sand
on the upper part; it ends abruptly against a steep dirt bluff. On the
beach no vegetation grows and only a few scattered drift logs occur. To
the west of Little Girl's Point undetached masses of solid rock are
more prominent, though small patches of gravel occur in partially
protected places. The beach here in general is narrow and rises
steeply, so that the different beach zones, lower, middle, and upper,
are not well marked. On the shores of Lake Gogebic are a few small sand
beaches; but around this lake, as well as around the smaller lakes of
the region, the forest comes, in general, directly to the edge of the
water. There was no opportunity to trap for mammals on a beach, and no
records for the habitat were obtained.
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