Note on the small mammals of small, isolated forest patches in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Keywords: biodiversity; community ecology; conservation; environmental drivers; fragmentation; Southern Africa; species richness EN biodiversity community ecology conservation environmental drivers fragmentation Southern Africa species richness 784 787 4 09/02/22 20220901 NES 220901 INTRODUCTION Anthropogenic habitat modification is the single biggest cause of forest habitat loss (Alroy, 2017; Ewers & Didham, 2006; Fahrig, 2003). Thus, investigating the small mammal populations in South African forests is an important first step to understanding the effects of forest fragmentation on forest fauna (Lindenmayer et al., 2002). Patch occupancy and potential metapopulation dynamics of three forest mammals in fragmented Afromontane forests in South Africa. Four species were caught across the nine forest patches; I Michaelamys namaquensis i (Namaqua rock mouse), I Myosorex varius i (forest shrew) I Graphiurus murinus i (woodland dormouse) and I Mastomys natalensis senu lato i (multimammate mouse) (Table 2). [Extracted from the article]