Live-trapping small mammals under snow: a protocol for maximising captures and minimising mortality

Difficulties in investigating shrews in the wild in winter, especially in trapping them and keeping them alive during live-trapping studies, have been the main reason for serious deficiencies in our knowledge of their ecology. We developed a live-trapping protocol which allowed us to maximise capture rates and minimise mortality of shrews. We used wooden box traps with a nest-chamber, which we set in plywood ‘chimneys’ with removable roofs. Chimneys facilitated suitable positioning of traps and protected them from being blocked by snow. This resulted in a high trappability (up to 20.2 shrews and 8.2 voles per 1000 trap hours), a large proportion of recaptures (most shrews were recaptured, often repeatedly) and a very low mortality rate (<0.09 shrews and 0 rodents per 1000 trap hours) despite sub-zero temperatures and deep snow cover. This allowed us to pursue an intensive live-trapping study, using the CMR-method, of shrews wintering in the Narewka river valley (north-east Poland). Because of the high trappability and minimal mortality, the presented protocol can be recommended to study winter ecology and conservation biology of such fragile and strictly protected small mammals as shrews.