Small mammals are important, albeit often overlooked, fauna in wetland restoration projects. However, it is essential to evaluate factors that influence small mammal community metrics in restored wetlands to maximize wetland restoration effectiveness. Previous studies found that vegetation differed as restored wetlands aged and that wetland age may play a role in the presence of amphibians and birds. Therefore, we assessed whether wetland age influenced small mammals. We also evaluated 17 environmental factors in restored wetlands that could influence small mammal communities in these wetlands. To assess and evaluate the effects of age and environmental factors on the small mammal community, we appraised 14 restored wetlands in West Virginia, USA, in the summers of 2020 and 2021 for small mammal community metrics, specifically relative abundance, diversity, richness, and evenness. We captured six species of small mammals: deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus), white-footed mice (Peromyscus leucopus), meadow voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus), meadow jumping mice (Zapus hudsonius), northern short-tailed shrews (Blarina brevicauda), and eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus). We found that the relative abundance of deer mice, white-footed mice, and meadow voles decreased with wetland age. However, both species diversity and evenness increased with wetland age. Wetland size influenced the relative abundance of white-footed mice, meadow jumping mice, and all small mammals combined. Although the relative abundance of white-footed mice and total small mammals decreased with wetland size, the relative abundance of meadow jumping mice increased with wetland size. Wetland managers should consider wetland age and size when designing wetlands to facilitate small mammal communities.

小型哺乳动物在湿地恢复项目中是重要的动物群，尽管经常被忽视。然而，有必要评估影响恢复湿地中小型哺乳动物群落指标的因素，以最大限度地提高湿地恢复效果。先前的研究发现，随着恢复的湿地老化，植被发生变化，湿地年龄可能在两栖动物和鸟类的存在中发挥作用。因此，我们评估了湿地年龄是否影响小型哺乳动物。我们还评估了恢复湿地中可能影响这些湿地小型哺乳动物群落的 17 个环境因素。为了评估年龄和环境因素对小型哺乳动物群落的影响，我们在 2020 年和 2021 年夏季评估了美国西弗吉尼亚州 14 个恢复的湿地的小型哺乳动物群落指标，特别是相对丰度、多样性、丰富度和均匀度。我们捕获了六种小型哺乳动物：鹿鼠（Peromyscus maniculatus）、白足鼠（Peromyscus leucopus）、草地田鼠（Microtus pennsylvanicus）、草地跳鼠（Zapus hudsonius）、北方短尾鼩鼱（Blarina brevicauda）和东部花栗鼠（Tamias striatus）。我们发现，鹿鼠、白足鼠和草地田鼠的相对丰度随着湿地年龄的增长而减少。然而，物种多样性和均匀度都随着湿地年龄的增加而增加。湿地大小影响白足鼠、草地跳鼠和所有小型哺乳动物的相对丰度。尽管白足鼠和小型哺乳动物总数的相对丰度随着湿地面积的增加而减少，但草甸跳鼠的相对丰度随着湿地面积的增加而增加。湿地管理者在设计湿地以促进小型哺乳动物群落时应考虑湿地的年龄和大小。