A Study of a Wood Mouse Population in Wytham Woods, Berkshire

Abstract

The wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus, is common throughout the British Isles and Europe and eastward into Asia (Matthews, 1952). Ecologically it is one of the most adaptable and important of the European small mammals but, like most common species, it has attracted very little attention from ecologists. The wood mouse has been studied far less than its American counterpart, Peromyscus maniculatus, although detailed comparisons between the two would be extremely valuable as a guide to the nature of the population dynamics and community relationships of small mammals.