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Home > Iowa Academy of Science > Journals & Newsletters > Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science > Volume 117 (2010) > Number 1-4

 

Document Type

Research

Keywords

Forest, Iowa, mammals, non-invasive trapping, prairie, remote-cameras, scent stations

Abstract

Two common noninvasive (i.e., no stress to the animal) methods used to survey mammals include track stations (i.e., track captures of mammals) and remote camera-traps (i.e., photo-captures of mammals). Our objectives were to compare capture effectiveness of both track stations and remote cameras in both forested and prairie habitats. This project was conducted on 4 study sires (2 forested sires and 2 prairie sites) located in Fayette County, Iowa. Each study site had 6 trapping stations 2:: 100 m apart. We monitored traps for a total of 216 trap nights and we recorded a total of 368 captures composed of 19 different mammal species. We found that in forest habitat remote camera-traps captured significantly more mammals compared to track stations (n = 53) (P<0.01; df = 1) while in prairie habitat we found no significant difference in the number of mammals captured between trap sires (P=0.27; df = 1). We recommend the use of digital remote cameras with no glow infrared technology in combination with the monitoring of mammal tracks to maximize mammal capture effectiveness.

Publication Date

January-December 2010

Journal Title

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science

Volume

117

Issue

1-4

First Page

4

Last Page

8

Copyright

© Copyright 2011 by the Iowa Academy of Science, Inc.

Language

EN

File Format

application/pdf

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