Evaluation of Rodent Hair Tubes for Activity Indices

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Wildlife Biology
• Mammalogy

Background:

• Small mammal activity is crucial for ecological studies.
• Traditional trapping methods can be invasive and labor-intensive.
• Hair tubes offer a non-invasive alternative for assessing mammal presence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a semi-automatic method for calculating hair density from hair tubes.
• To compare hair tube data with wildlife camera data for small mammal activity assessment.
• To evaluate the suitability of hair tubes for estimating small mammal activity in diverse habitats.

Main Methods:

• Developed a semi-automatic computer program to analyze scanned images of hair tube samples.
• The program automatically distinguishes hair from background and adhesive tape to quantify hair density.
• Validated hair tube data against wildlife camera recordings in grasslands, wheat crops, and hedges.

Main Results:

• The semi-automatic method provides a quantitative measure of hair density.
• Hair tube data showed moderate-to-strong positive correlations with wildlife camera data for voles and *Apodemus* species.
• Correlation coefficients ranged from 0.43 in grasslands to 0.79 in hedges.

Conclusions:

• Hair tubes, combined with the new analysis program, are a suitable tool for estimating small mammal activity at the community level.
• This method offers a less invasive and potentially more efficient approach to wildlife monitoring.
• The validated technique can be applied across multiple habitat types for ecological research.