Sunday saw the first of this years small mammal trapping demonstration.
We do this for a few reasons:
1. To survey what small mammals we have on the reserve.
2. It gives the opportunity for our team to train and practice their skills.
3. It's a fantastic opportunity for you, our visitors to see some of the reserve's smaller inhabitants up close.
Our team of dedicated volunteers, were out towards the end of yesterday afternoon setting 52 humane traps ready for the night when the small mammals are most active.
Then bright and early at 7am, whilst most people are at home either still asleep or tucking into their breakfast. They were hard at work lifting the traps to record the specimens captured.
Now although I use the word traps, I must stress that the 'nesting chamber' of the trap is a rather comfy affair, with a a selection of food to suit which ever animal happens to find it's way in there, along with a significant amount of straw to make a rather cosy bed, to ensure warmth and comfort through the night.
Upon checking the traps, we found:
1x common shrew
3x bank voles
6x wood mice
Here are just a few photos from this morning. We use the plastic bags to separate the animal from the nesting material in the trap and so we can accurately weigh the animal.
With the traps reset our guides went for breakfast.
We had a good turn out from visitors wanting to get up close to our reserves smaller residents, but unfortunately we didn't catch anything in the 3hrs since the traps we reset.
Luckily we'd kept hold of a wood mouse who was quite happy sitting in a tank we'd made up for it.
There was still plenty to talk about. Why we trap? How we trap? How to identify what we may find? and loads of other stuff.
So even though we didn't catch anything on our public trapping session, everyone still had a great time, got to see something a bit different and definitely learnt something new.
We'll be small mammal trapping throughout the weekends of October, keep an eye on Facebook for full details.