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Pitfall trap datasheet11/6/2022 ![]() ![]() All encounter and presence data is recorded in relation to its distance along a transect and frequently involves the use of a GPS. When track traps are located on a transect, a couple of minutes are spent inspecting these too. ![]() Close scrutiny of the ground is also required in order to observe tracks, scats and other species-specific sign. ![]() While conducting an unbounded line transect, the team uses all their senses (visual, acoustic, smell) to locate and identify the presence of terrestrial and arboreal mammals on either side of the transect. Sampling periods last anywhere between 3-5 hours depending on the method. Morning sampling begins at or just after dawn (5:30-6 am) afternoon sampling begins at 3:30 pm once the air temperature has dropped and diurnal mammal species activity levels increase and the evening or nocturnal sampling begins at 8 pm. Each week, sampling is undertaken on 4-6 mornings depending on weather conditions, alternating between line transects and primate follows, and similarly on 3-5 afternoons or evenings. Each field site has 4-8 line transects (totalling 8-24 km in length) which are sampled in the early morning, late afternoon, and at night 10-20 camera traps operating 24 hrs a day 8-16 pitfall traps (site-dependent and managed by the Herpetofauna team) 15-30 track traps (site and season dependent) and the team is also equipped with 2-3 handheld GPS receivers to collect precise geographic coordinate data of mammal encounters and the location of key feeding trees in the case of focal primate group follows. The latter method (pitfall traps) is achieved in collaboration with the herpetofauna team. The sampling methods that the team uses to study mammal populations, and which are led by one or two mammal team coordinators, include unbounded line transects, camera traps, track traps, GPS-enabled species encounters mapping, and to a limited degree pitfall traplines for small rodents. By undertaking sampling throughout the year, in dry and wet seasons across various habitat types, including floodplain and terra firme forest and in contrasting land-use categories, such as reserves and national parks, native community forests, ecotourism concessions, Brazil nut forests, timber extraction zones, bushmeat extraction areas, and forests associated with agriculture and cattle ranching and also by collating climate data at each study site, the team is able to determine the relative importance of each variable, understand the patterns and trends in diversity and abundance in time and space, and ultimately predict the current and future conservation status of mammals across the entire landscape. The Mammal Research Team, headquartered in the city of Puerto Maldonado, is tasked with developing baseline datasets on the diversity and abundance of 45 species of non-volant mammals at numerous field sites across the Madre de Dios region of Amazonian Peru, and to monitor changes in these variables over timescales ranging from months to decades. ![]()
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