Abstract | Biweekly standard North American snap trap census lines were run between 15 February 1979 and 8 May 1981 on the Jornada Experimental Range in southcentral New Mexico. Vegetatively, the study area represents northern Chihuahuan Desert. A trapping effort represented by 42,480 trap nights produced 14 species of desert rodents, with Onychomys leucogaster being second in abundance to Dipodomys ordii. Trapping frequency data for O. leucogaster were used to examine the relationship of activity patterns to moon phase, cloud cover, precipitation, temperature, evaporation, wind, and covariate terms derived from these. Regression analysis revealed the significant variables "new moon" and "minimum temperature"; however, these two attributes explain only 11% of the variance in trap-revealed activity. Activity patterns in O. leucogaster thus appear to be generally independent of abiotic influences. |