capture rate

The role of vegetation in the relationship between microhabitat and ship rat (Rattus rattus) distribution remains poorly understood. We used three years of trapping data (2017–2020) to calculate capture rates for 97 traps in the Makarora Valley and Haast Pass areas of Mt Aspiring National Park and determined aspects of the vegetation surrounding traps that influenced capture rates.

We present two statistical models documenting variations in density indices of stoats and of mice in New Zealand southern beech (Nothofagus spp.) forests. They confirm previous, simpler correlations showing that the summer capture rate of stoats increases with spring mouse density index up to about 20–25 mouse captures per 100 trap-nights (C/100TN). However, at much higher mouse densities (60–80 C/100TN), observed in the Grebe and Borland Valleys in southern Fiordland in 1979/80 and again in 1999/2000, fewer stoats were caught than expected.