Data from: Effects of habitat disturbance on physiological metrics of deer mice (Peromyscus sonoriensis)
Data files
Jul 22, 2026 version files 29.05 KB
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Adult_Male__Initial_Captures.csv
6.36 KB
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All_Initial_Captures.csv
5.40 KB
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Initails__Recaptures_Data.csv
8.63 KB
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README.md
5.64 KB
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Vegetation_Soil_Data.csv
3.02 KB
Abstract
The effect of anthropogenic disturbance on wildlife physiology has been understudied and has produced inconsistent results. While some species appear unable to tolerate disturbance and disappear from disturbed areas, others seem able to persist, although it may be physiologically costly. One such cost is chronic stress, which likely has a variety of impacts on fitness. We examined the effects of habitat disturbance on Western deer mice (Peromyscus sonoriensis) over four years on three levels of habitat disturbance. We measured hair corticosterone (hCORT) and white blood cell parameters as metrics of chronic stress and its potential downstream effect on immune function, respectively. Deer mice inhabiting the most disturbed sites exhibited higher levels of hCORT and a lower number of neutrophils compared to those on less disturbed sites. These findings suggest habitat disturbance acts as a chronic stressor, which in turn suppresses immune function. Because we examined the same species with similar context-dependent factors, including time of year, sex, age, and reproductive condition, we attribute these differences specifically to how habitat disturbance affected vegetative structure and soil temperature. We suggest some of the inconsistencies in results from previous studies may be due to overlooking important context-dependent factors and considering all habitat disturbance (e.g., ecotourism, climate change, habitat degradation) the same. Our results suggest that chronic stress and/or white blood cell metrics in deer mice may be useful tools in gauging restoration progress as well as providing a putative link between habitat disturbance and the increased presence of zoonotic pathogens found in several studies.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.mcvdnckgm
Description of the data and file structure
Data sets from: Effects of habitat disturbance on physiological metrics of deer mice (Peromyscus sonoriensis)
Files and variables
File: All_Initial_Captures.csv
Description: Initial (first time) deer mouse captures (both males and females) from 2016-2019 on 8 sites representing 3 disturbance levels.
Variables
- month.year: A composite of both month (May or June) and year (2016-2019)
- site.type: Sites were categorized as intact (I), restoration in progress (RIP) or disturbed (D)
- site.name: There were a total of 8 sites (2 disturbed, 4 restoration in progress and 2 intact), each with a unique name
- id: Each deer mouse was given an ear tag with a unique number that was used as their identification
- sex: each deer mouse was categorized as male (M) or female (F)
File: Initails__Recaptures_Data.csv
Description: All deer mouse captures (initial captures and all subsequent recaptures) from 2016-2019 on 8 sites representing 3 disturbance levels. n/a = not available because in the last trapping session (June 2019), each deer mouse was given an identification number for our data collection sheets but was not given an ear tag. We identified that a deer mouse was a recapture from a shaved right haunch where hair had been taken for stress analysis, but we did not know specifically which deer mouse was recaptured.
Variables
- month.year: A composite of both month (May or June) and year (2016-2019)
- site.type: Sites were categorized as intact (I), restoration in progress (RIP) or disturbed (D)
- site.name: There were a total of 8 sites (2 disturbed, 4 restoration in progress and 2 intact), each with a unique name
- id: Each deer mouse was given an ear tag with a unique number that was used as their identification
- capture.status: This signifies how many times a deer mouse was captured: I=initial/first capture, RC=recaptured/second capture within the same trapping session, RP=second or third capture but in a subsequent trapping session, RP/RC= an RP recaptured a second time in the second trapping session (third or fourth capture overall)
File: Adult_Male__Initial_Captures.csv
Description: Adult male deer mouse initial (first time) captures from 2016-2019 on 8 sites representing 3 disturbance levels. No recapture data is included in this dataset.
Variables
- year: the year in which each deer mouse was captured (2016-2019)
- month: the month in which each deer mouse was captured (either May or June)
- month.year: a composite of month and year
- site.type : the sites were categorized into three disturbance levels. D=disturbed (high disturbance), RIP=restoration in progress (intermediate disturbance), I=intact (least disturbed)
- site.name: there were a total of 8 sites (2 disturbed, 4 restoration in progress and 2 intact), each with a unique name
- id: the unique ear tag number given to each deer mouse
- repro: refers to reproduction status. Y means the deer mouse was in reproduction condition and N means it was not
- scars: refers to scars or abrasions on the tail and/or ears. Y means the deer mouse had scars, N means it did not
- ectos: refers to the presence of ectoparasites (fleas, mites, ticks). Y means ectoparasites were present, N means no ecotoparasites were observed
- wbc.ul: total number of white blood cells per microliter of blood
- total.lym: number of lymphocytes per microliter of blood
- total.neu: number of neutrophils per microliter of blood
- cort: a metric of chronic stress as measured by picograms of corticosterone per milligram of hair
File: Vegetation_Soil_Data.csv
Description: Four vegetation and one soil characteristic was measured at each of eight different sites. Data were collected in both 2017 and 2018 at each site and averaged for analysis.
Variables
- year: Year in which data was collected. Vegetation and soil data were collected at each site in each of two years (2017 and 2018)
- site.type: Sites were categorized as intact (I), restoration in progress (RIP) or disturbed (D)
- site: There were a total of 8 sites (2 disturbed, 4 restoration in progress and 2 intact), each with a unique name
- nearest.tree.shrub: The length in meters to the nearest tree or shrub from the center point of a 1m2 square vegetation grid that was randomly placed within the larger 50m X 100m trapping grid
- low.cvr: The percent of low cover (<0.5 meter) within a 1m2 square vegetation grid that was randomly placed within the larger 50m X 100m trapping grid
- cwd: The percent of coarse woody debris within a 1m2 square vegetation grid that was randomly placed within the larger 50m X 100m trapping grid
- tree and shrub: The number of trees and shrubs that had any part within a 1m2 square vegetation grid that was randomly placed within the larger 50m X 100m trapping grid
- avg.temp: The average soil temperature in Cº at 6 cm depth in the center of a 1m2 square vegetation grid that was randomly placed within the larger 50m X 100m trapping grid
Code/software
No code or software is associated with this dataset.
Access information
Other publicly accessible locations of the data:
- There are no other publicly accessible locations for this dataset
Data was derived from the following sources:
- All data was collected by the corresponding author and their undergraduate research students.