A technique for using hair tubes beneath the snowpack to detect winter-active small mammals in the subnivean space

Abstract

The study of winter-active small mammals beneath the snowpack has proved challenging for researchers because of the relative inaccessibility. We present a technique using hair tubes that permits the detection of small mammals active in the subnivean space. Hair tubes are cylindrical or funnel-shaped structures containing suitable bait and an adhesive surface that harvests hairs from small mammals as they attempt to reach the bait. Hair tubes eliminate many of the difficulties often associated with live trapping and permit the expansion of systematic sampling to larger scales than allowed by conventional live-trapping methods. The technique was used successfully to detect five small mammal species in the subnivean space in Kosciuszko National Park (KNP) in southeastern Australia. These included the common bush-rat, Rattus fuscipes; the dusky and agile antechinus, Antechinus swainsonii and A. agilis; the broad-toothed rat, Mastacomys fuscus; and the mountain pygmy possum, Burramys parvus. Although hair tubes have a number of limitations, such as not providing a measure of abundance or allowing the identification of individual animals, we believe that these limitations are balanced by the fact that the technique can be used at any spatial scale. Hair tubes are particularly suited to studies of animal distribution at the landscape-scale, because many hair tubes can be deployed and dispersed over large areas, and monitored on a regular basis by a small team of researchers. The technique also makes use of readily available, low-cost materials and could be easily adapted to a range of conditions and different target species.