Home range and habitat selection of southern flying squirrels in fragmented forests

We investigated home range and habitat selection behaviors of 44 and 50 southern flying squirrels (Glaucomys volans), respectively, on 5 study areas during the summers of 1994 through 1996 in the Ouachita National Forest of Arkansas. Study areas consisted of fragmented forests around 15-ha core stands in which squirrels were captured in nest boxes during winter surveys and radiocollared. Three of the core stands were mature pine-hardwood forest, one was a pine-hardwood shelterwood harvest, and the last was a pine-hardwood seedtree harvest. Home ranges of males ((x) over bar =16.03 ha, SE = 4.36, n = 18) were larger than those of females at the proportional to = 0.10 level ((x) over bar = 5.88 ha, SE = 0.74, n = 26) and showed high variability. The largest home ranges of males were associated with fragmented forests in which nesting and foraging areas were widely separated. Females generally demonstrated philopatry in foraging patterns within nesting habitats. Male and female home ranges were relatively small in forests where hard mast was abundant. Where mast resources were limited in favored nesting habitats, home ranges of males were larger and encompassed distant foraging patches. Squirrels used mature forest corridors to travel through plantations and harvested areas. Squirrels selected mature pine-hardwood forest, protected greenbelt riparian zones, and mature hardwood forest during nightly activity periods. Young (< 15 y old) and immature (15-40 y old) pine plantations were avoided. Snag density was correlated with squirrel density on a subset of 9 stands in which snag abundance was sampled. These results show southern flying squirrels to be selective in habitat use and sensitive to forest disturbance, not forest generalists, as has been previously reported. Forests managed to provide the greatest opportunity for the persistence of southern flying squirrels should retain protected forest along ephemeral streams within harvested areas, forested corridors connecting mature forest patches, and a mature hardwood component within the matrix of seral forests stages. The seedtree harvest regime, imposed in an already fragmented forest, appeared to represent a level of habitat alteration incompatible with successful flying squirrel occupation.