. The Ecology of arboreal folivores : a symposium held at the Conservation and Research Center, National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, May 29-31, 1975. Folivores; Forest ecology; Leaves; Mammals; Mammals. to much lowland forest occupied by opossums in New Zealand (Batcheler et al., 1967). Radiotelemetry is particularly useful for studying the opossum, which is nocturnal and mainly arboreal. This paper describes the results of radiotracking 4 opossums for 2 years from September 1970 to August 1972. A comparison of the home ranges of these an- imals, determined by tracking and by liv
. The Ecology of arboreal folivores : a symposium held at the Conservation and Research Center, National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, May 29-31, 1975. Folivores; Forest ecology; Leaves; Mammals; Mammals. to much lowland forest occupied by opossums in New Zealand (Batcheler et al., 1967). Radiotelemetry is particularly useful for studying the opossum, which is nocturnal and mainly arboreal. This paper describes the results of radiotracking 4 opossums for 2 years from September 1970 to August 1972. A comparison of the home ranges of these an- imals, determined by tracking and by live-trapping, will be published elsewhere. Study Area The 14-ha study area around the Ecology Division Field Station in the Orongorongo Valley, southern Rimutaka Range, North Island (Figure 1), lies 90-180 m on the east bank of the Orongorongo River and 11 km from its mouth. The study area is hilly and covered mainly with dense, mixed evergreen broad- leaf podocarp forest with an upper canopy at 25-35 m in which Metrosideros robusta and Dacrydium cupress- inum are dominant (Robbins, 1958). A middle stratum at 12-25 m is mainly Knightia excelsa, Elaeocarpus dentatus, and Laurelia novaezealandiae. Small trees and shrubs reaching 12 m—chiefly of Melicytus ra- miflorus, Hedycarya arborea, and Pseudowintera ax- illaris—make up a lower stratum. Epiphytes, lianas, and tree ferns (Cyathea spp.) are abundant. On the drier eastern slopes of the study area Nothofagus truncata with some Nothofagus solandri is dominant. The mean annual rainfall at the field station is 2443 mm. On this area a 30-by-30-m grid is marked on the ground with steel pegs. In a central area 150 m square, all trees with a breast-height diameter (dbh) exceed- ing 10 cm have been identified and numbered with metal tags; those over 30 cm dbh are also Figure 1. General map of study area. Hence, any point on the ground can be plotted to ± 1 m even at night, which was essential for recording locations of
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