Small mammal capture rates in dormant vs. growing season prescribed burn areas and their bait preference at Cooper Farm in Muncie, Indiana

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Authors
Rollings, Natasha
Advisor
Carter, Timothy C.
Issue Date
2016-05
Keyword
Degree
Thesis (B.?)
Department
Honors College
Other Identifiers
Abstract

Prescribed burning is an important tool for maintaining prairies, and it is used with the tall grass prairies on Cooper Farm. There are two categories of this prescribed burning: dormant season burning occurs in late fall or early spring while growing season burning occurs in the late summer. Both types of burning accomplish the same task of reducing the area of woody growth and helping to renew and encourage the further development of nutrients in the area. Small mammals can be indicative of the environment's health, in this study, small mammals were trapped in plots on Cooper Farm where half had been burned during the dormant season and the other half burned during the growing season in order to determine the success of these burning strategies. Trapping occurred from September 28th to November 4th of 2015 in a total of 11 trapping sessions. Each trapping session consisted of three days during which two prairie plots were set up with fifty Sherman traps placed in a grid pattern in two prairie plots. In addition to these two grids, a transect of 24 Sherman traps was placed in a third prairie plot for each trapping session. In this transect, 12 pairs of traps were strategically placed where one of each pair contained a peanut butter and oatmeal mixture bait and the other trap contained a seed only bait. Two objectives were examined: to determine differences in small mammal capture rates in prairie plots exposed to dormant season burns and prairie plots exposed to growing season burns as well as to determine the bait preference of small mammals. A two-sample t-test showed no difference in capture rates of dormant season and growing season burns. Another two-sample t-test also showed no difference in bait preference. This study is part of an ongoing research investigation, and when combined with future work may yield more significant results.