Ecologia Mediterranea

CATERINA MAGRINI, MICHELE CENTO, EMILIANO MANZO, MASSIMO PIERPAOLI, LIVIA ZAPPONI, ROBERTO COZZOLINO
tools in investigating ecological and behavioural
patterns in solitary small carnivores.
Material and methods
We studied a weasel population during two
years (from summer 2002 to summer 2004),
in an agricultural area of central Italy, inside
the Regional Natural Reserve of Lungo and
Ripasottile Lakes. Data were collected by live
trapping and genetic analyses on samples of
their hair bulbs. All field works were conducted
following the standards and procedures
laid down by national legislation and
under the permission of the Natural Reserve
Institution.
Figure 1 – Map of the study area with the trap sites locations of 14 trapped weasels
(squares measure 1 km 2 ).
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Trapping and handling of animals
Weasels were trapped using Edgar wooden
box traps (King & Edgar 1977). Trapping sessions
were conducted every month for different
periods of time and the trapping effort was
variable by year and season; 20 to 50 traps
worked simultaneously during the data collection
period, placed throughout a study area
of 9 km 2 . Trap sites were chosen in the most
suitable habitats (stone walls, ditches and
hedgerows), at variable distance from each
other, usually from 20 m to 50 m. During data
collection, traps were moved over different
locations inside study area, in order to capture
different animals. The traps were baited with
dead house mice (Mus domesticus) and
checked twice a day, once in the morning and
ecologia mediterranea – Vol. 38 (2) – 2012