Live-trap docility assessment (Sciuridae)

Knowledge graph centered on Live-trap docility assessment (Sciuridae) with 61 nodes and 186 connections. Top connected: Marmota flaviventris, mark-recapture (Sciuridae), focal animal sampling (Sciuridae), Parus major, prairie dogs.

Method synopsis

Live-trapping of marmots to assess docility through standardized behavioral responses during capture and handling, including alarm calling propensity in trap situations.

Synthesized from method descriptions across 4 papers using this protocol.

Procedure from a recent peer-reviewed implementation

Steps below were extracted from the most recent peer-reviewed implementation of this protocol in the corpus — Mixed support for state maintaining risky personality traits in yellow-bellied marmots (2019), Animal Behaviour. Implementations in other papers (listed below) may differ.

1. Assess docility during handling
   Upon arrival at trap, researchers noted whether individuals struggled in the trap, tooth-chattered, bit the cage, or alarm-called before being transferred to handling bag. Behaviors were scored dichotomously (0/1), summed, and subtracted from total potential score to create docility index. Opposite of docility was labeled as defensive aggression.
   Quantities: Scored on 4 behaviors, creating index ranging from highly docile to highly aggressiveDuration: Assessed immediately upon trap arrival and during transfer to handling bagConditions: During each trapping event
   Equipment: standardized scoring sheets

Typical Equipment

• Tomahawk single door live traps
• canvas handling bags
• #3 monel fingerling fish tags
• Nyanzol fur dye

Output Measurements

• docility index
• in-trap alarm calling rates
• trap behavior scores

Papers Using This Protocol (4)

Species Studied With This Protocol