VMM - Rat control occurrences in Flanders, Belgium

Study Extent

All public watercourses in Flanders are prospected at least annually. All invasive species are recorded and/or exterminated.

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. For plants, water bodies and streams are visually screened by boat or from the river bank, at least on an annual basis. All records are recorded and/or exterminated.

Quality Control

Imagery is often provided through the registration app. Uncertain ID’s are double checked.

Method steps

1. The source data for this standardized dataset is managed by the Flanders Environment Agency (VMM).
2. An SQL script was developed to transform the data to Darwin Core. This mapping script was uploaded to a GitHub repository https://github.com/riparias/vmm-rattenapp-occurrences/tree/main/sql and includes the following steps:
3. Perform some basic data cleaning of the raw data.
4. Generate stable and unique identifiers for each occurrence (occurrenceID).
5. Create a occurrence core file (https://rs.gbif.org/core/dwc_occurrence_2022-02-02.xml).

The main species included are muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus, 45%), brown rat (Rattus norvegicus, 15%) and Eurasion beaver (Castor fiber, 10%). The dataset also includes records of water primrose (Ludwigia grandiflora), floating pennywort (Hydrocotyle ranunculoides) and several other animal and plant pest species.

1. Plantae
   rank: kingdom
2. Animalia
   rank: kingdom

Flanders, Belgium