Shrew trap efficiency: experience from primary forest, secondary forest, old fallow land and old palm plantation in the Congo River basin (Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo)

We investigated the efficiency of four trap types ( pitfall, Sherman LFA, Victor snap and Museum Special snap traps) to capture shrews. This experiment was conducted in five inter-riverine forest blocks in the region of Kisangani. The total trapping effort was 6,300, 9,240, 5,280 and 5,460 trap-nights for the pitfall, Sherman, Victor and Museum Special traps, respectively. In total, we captured 366 shrews. The use of pitfall traps yielded the highest trapping success (4.1) with at least 18 shrew species identified. Trapping success and the number of species collected was lower for the Sherman (0.6, at least 11 species), Victor ( 0.6, at least 8 species) and Museum Special (0.5, at least 6 species) traps. Although Crocidura olivieri and C. denti were caught using all four trap types, captures with different trap types did not produce a sample with the same taxonomic composition. In agreement with previous studies, our results indicate that pitfall traps are the most efficient for capturing shrews: not only do they have a higher efficiency (yield), but the taxonomic diversity of shrews is also higher when pitfall traps are used.

Publication year:2008