Efficiency of pitfall traps and snap traps in small terrestrial mammals depends on their diet composition

Abstract

Small terrestrial mammals are of extraordinary importance in most terrestrial ecosystems (Barrett and Peles, 1999;Weldy et al., 2019). Their biomass, relatively high and variable abundance, short generation interval, and rapid response to changing conditions make them one of the most sensitive bioindicators of change throughout the environment (e.g., Pearce and Venier, 2005;Heroldová et al, 2018). At the same time, small terrestrial mammals are among the vertebrates that are most difficult to trace (Zejda, 1991). Different types of traps (snap traps, pitfalls, live traps) are mostly used to describe communities of small mammals (e.g., Sheftel, 2018).Numerous studies have already been devoted to comparing the effectiveness of different trapping methods and types of traps. Some have also been devoted to the direct comparison of the different ways of using pitfalls and snap traps under different habitat conditions (e.g.