A Morning of Mice and Shrews

A morning of small mammal trapping with the Eco Society of Penryn Campus University of Exeter.

It was an early morning on Monday the second, bright and early to check the small mammal taps that had been laid the previous evening, full of some apple, seeds, straw and of course cat food.

The cat food was needed to maintain the shrews very high metabolism.

Myself and a few others from the Eco society met at the entrance to the field where the traps had been laid with the necessary equipment and began looking for the bamboo sticks underneath which where some small metal boxes.

Not the best picture but they tend to not appreciate having their tails measured! Upon picking up the traps we could generally tell whether or not it contained the treasure we were hoping for, just incase we carefully pull the straw from the container inside the plastic bag so the rodents don't are contained when the come out.

The mice, voles and shrews are measured by body length, tail length and leg length as well as their wight with a small scale, taking into account the bag. The details are then passed to the resident rodent fanatic professor at the university after making sure the animals aren't stressed and

are released properly back to where they came from, all be it probably a bit grumpy from having their morning interupted.

On this morning we had over 10 mice , 5 voles and 3 shrews within the one field, and all before Breakfast.