Mammal inventory of Alaska's National Parks and Preserves: Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (Annual Report 2001–2002)

Cook, J; Macdonald, S

TIn July and August of 2001 and August of 2002, field crews from the Beringian Coevolution Project (BCP) at Idaho State University (ISU) sampled the small mammal fauna at 14 base locations in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (WRST) for a total of 242 persondays (over 9812 trap nights) of collecting effort. Other primary institutions participating in the inventory included the University of Alaska Museum (UAM), USDA National Parasite Lab, University of New Mexico, University of Saskatchewan, Institute of Biological Problems of the North-Magadan, Russia, and The Finnish Forest Research Institute (Vantaa Research Centre). The specific products of this study include a large collection of well-prepared, welldocumented, and diverse preparations of mammal specimens and associated materials (tissues, parasites, fecal samples, digestive tracts). A total of 983 small mammal specimens comprising 17 species was archived from the 14 general localities. Across all localities, three murid rodents (northern red-backed vole, meadow vole, and tundra vole) and a shrew (montane shrew) were the most frequently sampled species (309, 204, 191, and 91 specimens, respectively), comprising 88% of all specimens collected. The discovery of the tiny shrew (Sorex yukonicus) at Carden Hills and Braye Lakes constitutes a new species for WRST and significantly expands the known range of the species by over 300 kilometers from the nearest locality in central Alaska. It is likely that this species extends into Canada, although it has not yet been documented there. This study also provides the first documentation of the water shrew, tundra shrew, and singing vole in WRST, and contributes new locality information on several other species, including hoary marmot, meadow vole, longtailed vole, brown lemming, and northern bog lemming. he findings from this inventory, when combined with specimen information gathered from a review of holdings in other major collections, bring the total number of documented small mammal species in WRST to 21 of 26 potential species, or 81% coverage. Additional effort should focus on documenting ermine, least weasel, northern flying squirrel, meadow jumping mouse, taiga vole, and muskrat, as well as providing more detailed documentation of several other species now known by very few specimens.

Mammal inventory of Alaska's National Parks and Preserves: Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve (Annual Report 2001–2002)

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