Habitat
The mice are dependent heavily on vegetation cover. Thus they can only survive under thick vegetation. Specifically they are dependent on thick cover of plants that thrive in salt water. They include salt marsh herbs, grasses and reeds. The pickleweed (Salicornia virginica) is their primary and preferred habitat as well their main food source. The salt marsh Harvest mouse is not an aggressive species thus enabling many mice to live in close quarters which gives them the ability to withstand short durations of high population density. Salinity is also a key factor in their habitat, low salinity Marshlands and less pickleweeds do not provide much of a habitat for the species. This is a major key to their habitat loss and species endangerment. Their diet also consists of seeds, grasses and some insects. They can also survive tidal or seasonal flooding due to their superior ability to swim, float and climb.
Read more about this topic: Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse
Famous quotes containing the word habitat:
“Neither moral relations nor the moral law can swing in vacuo. Their only habitat can be a mind which feels them; and no world composed of merely physical facts can possibly be a world to which ethical propositions apply.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“Nature is the mother and the habitat of man, even if sometimes a stepmother and an unfriendly home.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)