Foreight months during 1984 a capture-recapture study of the community of small mammals was carried outat Bajo Calima on the Pacific lowlands of Colombia. Two trapping grids were established, one in primary rainforest and one in secondary growth, Eleven vegetative structural characteristics were measured at each trap station and were analyzed using canonical variables, allowing the habitat utilization curve to be obtained for each species present. Along a habitat continuum from primary to perturbed forest, the four most-common species were arranged in the order: Oryzomys bombycinus, Hoplomys gymnurus, Proechimys semispinosus, Philanderopossum. The canonical distribution of Metachirus nudicaudatus included the combined distributions of Hoplomys and Proechimyswith a peak coincident with that of Proechimys. The results are discussed in the light of Neotropical rainforest conservation.