A cost-efficient novel live-trap for demographic studies of small mammals
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Ecology, Zoology
- Keywords
- Rodentia, Live-trap, Ecology, Capture-Mark-Recapture, Trapping, Ecology, Capture-Mark-Recapture, Live-trap, Trapping, Rodentia
- Copyright
- © 2015 Locasciulli et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2015. A cost-efficient novel live-trap for demographic studies of small mammals. PeerJ PrePrints 3:e1179v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1179v1
Abstract
A new live-trap (named LOT trap) for small mammals is described herein. This trap is easily built and is considerably cheaper than commercial traps. The trap body is made of a PVC 8x8 cm pipe, with a tin door and a transparent plexiglas back door. The efficacy of this trap was tested in an experimental field study, and the results are presented and discussed. Capture rates were significantly different between types of trap, with 81.6% of captured rodents for LOT and 18.4% of rodents for multiple-capture traps.
Author Comment
This is the formal description of a new live-trap for capturing small mammals alive. This trap type is cheap and highly performing. Thus, it can be very useful for scientists working on small mammal ecology in the developing countries.