Dr Hannah Lockwood, PhD

I conducted a small mammal trapping project in 2018 in South Derbyshire, placing Longworth traps in over 170 garden locations, with great thanks to the property occupiers. This involved over 2,500 trap checks in total, yet yielded very few captures. All checks were done by myself and my undergraduate student, finding just six individuals (one common shrew, two wood mice, and three bank voles)!

We clipped their fur in a unique pattern, allowing us to recognise recaptures very easily. Despite the low number of individuals caught, the voles were recaptured 15 times!

This was unfortunately a very hot, dry period in the summertime and we believe that this affected activity levels and, therefore, capture rates.