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Muskrat captures in Flanders, Belgium
Citation
Cartuyvels E, Brosens D, Adriaens T, Baert K, Desmet P, Devisscher S, Neukermans A, Stuyck J, Huysentruyt F (2021): Muskrat captures in Flanders, Belgium. v1.9. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). Dataset/Occurrence. https://doi.org/10.15468/pequ4z

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
Muskrat captures in Flanders, Belgium is an occurrence dataset published by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It contains information on all officially registered captures of muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) in and around Flanders, Belgium between 1991 and 2018. These data are provided by different management actors: the Flanders Environment Agency (VMM), Rattenbestrijding Oost-Vlaanderen (RATO vzw), Polders and Wateringen (vvpw), and provincial and municipal trappers, and aggregated and analyzed by the INBO since 1991. more

Here it is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each occurrence record an occurrenceID, date, location, samplingProtocol (trap) and samplingEffort (number of days or traps), scientific name, and the organization who made the capture. The original dataset contains close to 450.000 occurrences and is available on GitHub, but only presence records (over 103.000) are included in this version, which can be used to track muskrat distribution in Flanders since 1991. 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.
This dataset was published for the MICA project, which received funding from the European Union’s LIFE Environment sub-programme under the grant agreement LIFE18 NAT/NL/001047.
This dataset contains officially registered captures of muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) in Flanders and around. Muskrat is listed as an invasive species of EU concern sensu the EU Regulation 1143/2014, which requires member states to prevent or manage its introduction and spread.
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. Trapping techniques used in Flanders are described in the best practice of Stuyck (2016).

Scope
Themes:
Biology > Ecology - biodiversity, Biology > Mammals
Keywords:
Fresh water, Terrestrial, Introduced species, Invasive species, Observation, Belgium: Flanders,

Geographical coverage
Belgium: Flanders

Temporal coverage
1 January 1992 - 31 December 2018

Taxonomic coverage
Ondatra zibethicus

Parameter
Occurrence of biota

Contributors
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: 2021-07-20
All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy