On Friday 27th October, we hosted our first ever Small Mammal Survey on campus, in conjunction with Warwickshire Mammal Group. The event was a success, with both staff and students joining us to see which small mammals could be found.

On the evening of Thursday 26th October between 8-10pm, 22 Longworth traps were placed around the field close to Claycroft residences and near to the allotment. The traps were filled with bedding and food (e.g., apple), to ensure that any mammals in the trap would be warm and well fed for the night. When a mammal enters a Longworth trap, the door closes, and they remain in there until they are released. For this reason, it is important that there is enough food to sustain them overnight, at a time when would typically be foraging.

On the Friday morning, after an explanation of how the traps work, we set out to check them. Of the 22 traps, a small mammal was found in 11! Warwickshire Mammal Group members carefully opened the traps revealing the adorable, small mammals (see pictures below) including seven wood mice, three bank voles, and one common shrew.

It was brilliant to see faces light up as people saw the tiny mammals. We then released the mammals back into the wooded area for them to continue with their day!

A huge thank you to Warwickshire Mammal Group for conducting the survey with us and giving up their time – it was a brilliant first step in understanding more about the mammals on our campus. In future, we hope to do more small mammal survey in different areas across campus. If you would like to learn more about Warwickshire Mammal Group or get involved with the work that they do, you can access their webpage hereLink opens in a new window.