MICA - Muskrat occurrences collected by VMM in Flanders, Belgium

Study Extent

Muskrats were introduced in 1928 in Belgium as a fur animal. As early as 1938, its eradication was ordered, making the muskrat control program one of the longest standing control programs for any organism in Belgium. Since then, there have been many different actors and control methods, and today the control is still spread over several management actors and public authorities. In 1991 control was organized at the municipal level, many of whom hired private firms to control muskrats (Stuyck 2002). Catches, bait use, effort and bycatches (most of the time) were submitted monthly to Landelijke Waterdienst /AMINAL - Afdeling Water by mail. Muskrat control in Flanders was regionalized and strongly professionalized at the end of the 1990s. For-profit trapping and the fur trade of muskrats was banned. The Flanders Environment Agency (VMM) became responsible for controlling muskrats on all streams under Flemish regional jurisdiction. They are complemented by other management actors, such as provincial and municipal trappers, Rattenbestrijding Oost-Vlaanderen (RATO vzw) and Polders and Wateringen (vvpw).

Sampling

Trappers of the VMM will prospect all streams and water bodies at least twice every year for signs of muskrat or coypu activity. Regions with higher population densities are prospected more frequently. Upon detection of either species, traps are deployed according to the management protocol for muskrat in Flanders (beheerregeling muskusrat in Vlaanderen). Every trapping site is registered by the trapper through the use of a mobile gps application. Per trapping site the trapper will deploy one or multiple traps, all of which are registered in the application. The traps are checked frequently, preferably daily. Both catches and bycatches are registered for each individual visit to a trapping site. As soon as all muskrats/coypu have been caught at a location or whenever no new signs of rat activity are noticed, the trapper will remove the traps.

Quality Control

Data are collected using a predefined sampling protocol.

Method steps

1. Data are collected in the field by specialized trappers, using the predefined sampling protocol.
2. An R script script is created to map the original data to Darwin Core.
3. The resulting Darwin Core data files are uploaded to the INBO IPT and documented with metadata.
4. The dataset is published and registered with GBIF.

The target species for this dataset are Ondatra zibethicus and Rattus norvegicus.

1. Animalia
   common name: Animalia rank: kingdom
2. Chordata
   rank: phylum
3. Mammalia
   rank: class
4. Rodentia
   rank: order
5. Ondatra zibethicus
   common name: muskrat rank: species
6. Rattus norvegicus
   common name: brown rat rank: species

Flanders, Belgium