IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group Library

IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library

View printer friendly
Caro, T.M.
Species richness and abundance of small mammals inside and outside an African national park
2001 Biological Conservation (98): 251-257
To discover whether management practices designed to protect large mammals are effective in preserving other elements of biodiversity, small mammal traps were set at 12 sites inside a national park in western Tanzania and at 13 sites outside, in an area where people practised agriculture. Over 6145 trapnights spanning both dry and wet seasons, nine species of rodent and insectivore were captured. Average species diversity and measures of abundance were greater outside than inside the Park, particularly during the dry season. These results also held when traps set inside people's houses were excluded from analyses. _Mastomys natalensis_, _Lemniscomys striatus_ and the human commensal, _Rattus rattus_, were each found at significantly greater densities outside the protected area. These data on small mammal species' richness and abundance raise questions as to whether large mammals can act as effective umbrellas for conserving small mammal taxa in East Africa.
	PDF files are only accessible to Friends of the Cat Group. Joining Friends of the Cat Group gives you unlimited access and downloads in the Cat SG Library for one year, and allows you to receive our newsletter Cat News (2 regular issues per year plus special issues). More information how to join here