Materials I Used For Small Mammals Trapping

I involved in several field works that doing small mammals trapping. Since July 2006 until Dec 2007 I conduct seven small mammals trapping. It does give amazing results from the planted forests area. My work was more on the tree plantation area which are mainly planted with Acacia mangium, an exotic species of fast growing trees.

To do trapping I need two important materials. Without these two things I will not get any animals. Traps and baits…?

I use collapsible wire live-traps (43x16x16cm). It is a local made traps that ordered from Peninsular Malaysia. I can’t remember who our supplier is. These traps have weaknesses too. It is a collapsible trap so it is easier to carry it into the forest but it can be broken easily. Maybe because the “joining” part is not tight enough and when we carry it in the dense understorey of tropical rainforest, the “joining part” will come apart. So that is why before we bring the traps into the field we have to check it one by one and make sure it fully functional.

How about baits? I choose five different types of baits. Squirrels like banana, oil palm seed and roasted coconut, but rats really like roasted coconut more than squirrels. Treeshrews loves banana very much even though sometimes it enter the traps that I use oil palm seed as baits. The purpose of using several types of baits is just to get as many different species of small mammals as possible. It turns out with good results where more than 20 species of small mammals was captured.

So, I am not going to say I am good in traps small mammals because it is a tough work. That is it for those who are interested of doing small mammals trapping in Bornean rainforest.