The Effectiveness of Four Trap Types for Non-Volant Small Mammals: Large Sherman Livetraps, Standard Sherman Livetraps, Large Snap traps, and Pitfall Traps
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Authors
Maiorana, Kathleen
Issue Date
2007
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
Small mammal studies depend upon an ability to conduct a representative
survey of the species and the density of individuals of a study site. The selection
of trap type is, therefore, an important aspect of these studies. We compared four
trap types and examined their effectiveness in catching non-volant small
mammals in Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) and Roosevelt National
Forest (RNF). Trapping was conducted in linear transects of 60 traps: 30
standard Sherman livetraps, 10 large Sherman live traps, 10 large snaptraps, 10
pitfall traps. Large snaptraps had the largest ratio of total captures to total
number of traps (11.7). Large snap traps and large Sherman livetraps had higher
ratios for the majority of the species sampled. Large snaptraps were concluded
to be the most efficient method of sampling small mammal populations when a
greater quantity of specimens is desired. However, a combination of large
snap traps and large Sherman livetraps may be most effective when sampling the
species of small mammals found within Rocky Mountain National Park and
Roosevelt National Forest and may be preferred in the interest of conservation of
these species. Future studies could examine the effectiveness of different
combinations of trap types.
Description
vi, 15 p.
Citation
Publisher
Kalamazoo College
License
U.S. copyright laws protect this material. Commercial use or distribution of this material is not permitted without prior written permission of the copyright holder.