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MICA - Muskrat occurrences collected by RATO in East Flanders, Belgium
Citation
Van Moer K, Brosens D, Cartuyvels E, Adriaens T, Baert K, Devisscher S, Neukermans A, Huysentruyt F (2022): MICA - Muskrat occurrences collected by RATO in East Flanders, Belgium. v1.13. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). Dataset/Occurrence. https://doi.org/10.15468/5fps96

Access data
Archived data
Availability: CC0 To the extent possible under law, the person who associated CC0 with this dataset has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this dataset.

Description
MICA - Muskrat occurrences collected by RATO in East Flanders, Belgium is an occurrence dataset published by the Research Institute of Nature and Forest (INBO). It is part of the LIFE project MICA, in which innovative techniques are tested for a more efficient control of muskrat and coypu populations, both invasive species. This dataset contains muskrat trap captures. more

Here it is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each occurrence record an occurrenceID, date, location, the number of recorded individuals, status (present/absent) and scientific name. Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/inbo/mica-occurrences/issues


We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the INBO norms for data use (https://www.inbo.be/en/norms-data-use) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don't hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via opendata@inbo.be.


The data were collected as part of the MICA project, which received funding from the European Union’s LIFE Environment sub-programme under the grant agreement LIFE18 NAT/NL/001047.


Before 2000, baits infused with rodenticides were used to control muskrats. These catches were seldom registered as animals could not be recovered. It is therefore likely that reported catches up until this point in time are an underestimation. Since 2000, Flanders has banned the use of rodenticides for muskrat control and the control is performed purely mechanical using various types of traps. These traps will be laid out either at fixed distances close to the regional borders as a passive control mechanism or they will be placed where traces of muskrat presence are reported as active control mechanisms (Verbeylen et al. 2002). These traps are controlled minimally each week but at high densities it is more likely that a trapper will check them each day. The date of an observation is therefore the date that the animal was retrieved from the trap.This is explained in Dwc:samplingEffort Trapping techniques used in Flanders are described in the best practice of Stuyck (2016). Conibeartraps, fishtraps and baittraps are used for this dataset. RATO vzw carries out active control on the public areas in East Flanders. The trapper searches along the public waterways, street canals, container parks… to find traces of muskrats and brown rats. The transitions of closed to open sewer are extra guarded.


Scope
Themes:
Biology > Ecology - biodiversity, Biology > Mammals
Keywords:
Fresh water, Terrestrial, Awareness, Biodiversity, Damage, Damage prevention, Flood control, Flood protection, Observation, Pest control, Belgium, Flanders,

Geographical coverage
Belgium, Flanders Stations [Marine Regions]
East Flanders

Temporal coverage
15 December 2017 - 2 December 2020

Taxonomic coverage
Ondatra zibethicus

Parameter
Occurrence of biota

Contributors
Rattenbestrijding Oost-Vlaanderen vzw (RATO), moredata creator
Vlaamse overheid; Beleidsdomein Omgeving; Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek (INBO), moredata creator


Dataset status: In Progress
Data type: Data
Data origin: Monitoring
Metadatarecord created: 2021-07-20
Information last updated: 2022-11-21
All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy