Heterogeneity of Trap Response in a Population of House Mice

Abstract

Capture and recapture data from house mouse populations were analyzed for evidence of unequal trap vulnerability among their members. Distributions of recapture frequencies failed to conform to the Poisson series. Distribution of time intervals elapsing between original and first recaptures failed to conform with an expected power-series distribution. The data indicate that individual variation in trap vulnerability is not a function of experience with traps. Evidently these live trap samples and others obtained by similar means are strongly biased and not suitable for use in population estimates.