Mini Mammal Monitoring

Do you want to get involved in small mammal ecology, encounter rare mammals and contribute to our knowledge of the distribution and abundance of small mammals in the UK? Then Mini Mammal Monitoring is for you!

This urgently needed, ongoing, multi-species monitoring programme will provide long-term reliable data on population trends of this keystone group of mammals, runs each Autumn between September and December.

 

 

*** DNA DELAY: We would like to inform all surveyors that we value the records that been have collected for the Bait Tube survey. Unfortunately, there has been a delay in the DNA analysis, and in turn to the publication of the results. We would like to apologise for this delay and assure you all that the results will be published as soon as possible. ***

 

 

Choose from the following four surveys:

 

 

How to take part:

 

  1. Choose a post code or grid reference of an area you want to survey, and register online.
  2. We use this to generate three random sites*, called tetrads, for  you to choose from
  3. Choose which survey(s) you want to do, and read the Health & Safety guidance.
  4. Survey anywhere within your tetrad, using up to 2 transects for each survey method you do
  5. Submit your results online, or send us the paper forms from the handbook if you prefer

 

*If you have a specific location, e.g. farm or nature reserve, to survey, ask to be allocated that tetrad directly when registering.

 

 

Explaining Tetrads - Example: How to locate tetrad SU23N

 

A tetrad is a 2x2km square, and comprises four grid squares (in this example SU2436, SU2536, SU2437, SU2537). Tetrads are defined by the grid reference of its South West corner. It is always even numbered. In this example, the defining grid reference for SU23N is SU2436.

 

There are 25 tetrads in one hectad. A hectad is a 10x10km square (5 tetrads long, by 5 tall). There are ten hectads in one 100x100km square.

 

The 100km square is defined by two letters, in this example 'SU'. The 10km hectad is defined by the two numbers shown above (in this example 2 and 3). Our hectad, SU23, can be found 20km north, and 30km east from the south-west corner of square SU.

 

Tetrads within every hectad are labelled A-Z (omitting O) depending on where it sits in the hectad. We locate the tetrad using the 'hidden' numbers of the grid reference from the SW grid ref, e.g. the 4 and 6. This tetrad is 4km east (known as eastings) and 6km north (northings) of the SW corner of square SU23, therefore N on the grid, as defined by The DINTY system.