Abundance and species diversity of small mammals on beaver lodges

• Main Authors: Ulevičius, Alius, Janulaitis, Martynas
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Lithuanian; English
• Published: 2007
• Subjects: Small mammals; Abundance; Diversity; Beaver lodges; Castor fiber; Clethrionomys (Myodes) glareolus; Microtus arvalis
• Online Access: http://lmavb.lvb.lt/LMAVB:ELABAPDB5751538&prefLang=en_US

In these three habitats, small mammals of four species were caught: Sorex minutus, Apodemus flavicollis, Clethrionomys glareolus, Microtus arvalis, and the total average RA for small mammal community (10.2 ind./100 trap-days in the forest) was less than on beaver lodges. Despite the high number of registered species, the strong domination of Clethrionomys glareolus determined the low species diversity of small mammal community on beaver lodges (the Shannon diversity index varied from 0 to 1.32 when log2 was used and from 0 to 0.91 when ln was used). Seasonally, most small mammals were caught on beaver lodges in autumn; however, the absolutely highest RA of Clethrionomys glareolus on beaver lodges during the whole period of investigations was registered in spring 2002. Results of our investigation suggest beaver lodges being important habitats for small mammals, especially for Clethrionomys glareolus.