Incidental captures of birds in small mammal traps: a cautionary note for interdisciplinary studies.

Abstract

Although benefits of interdisciplinary studies are numerous, potential exists for data acquisition for some aspects of such studies to impact data acquisition for other aspects. This may be particularly true in studies involving both trapping of small mammals and assessment of bird populations. We summarize the incidence of birds captured during 8 research projects in Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington that used 5 types of small mammal traps, and discuss possible impacts of small-mammal trapping on bird surveys and possible mitigation measures. In these studies, 867 birds representing 17 species were captured in 703,138 total trap-nights (TN). The song sparrow (Melospiza melodia), spotted towhee (Pipilo maculatus), Steller's jay (Cyanocitta stelleria, and gray jay (Perisoreus canadensis) accounted for 86% of all bird captures; ground-foraging species accounted for 54% of all bird captures. Relatively high capture rates were. observed in Sherman (H. B. Sherman Traps, Inc., Tallahassee, Flor.) and Tomahawk traps (Tomahawk Live Trap Co., Tomahawk, Wisc.) (4.1 and 9.8 birds/1,000 TN, respectively) in study 1, whereas pitfall 1 and Ugglan (Grahnab, Ekhaga Marieholm, Hillerstorp, Sweden) traps had negligible captures (

Citation

Waldien, David L.; Cooley, Miranda M.; Weikel, Jennifer; Hayes, John P.; Maguire, Chris C.; Manning, Tom; Maier, Thomas J. 2004. Incidental captures of birds in small mammal traps: a cautionary note for interdisciplinary studies. Wildlife Society Bulletin. 32(4): 1260-1268