Notes on: Capture rates of small vertebrates decrease as the pit-trapping effort increases at Ora Banda

Based on 27216 pit-trap nights, we measuredcatch rates for reptiles and mammals using bucket andpipe pit-traps over seven consecutive days for nine sitesfor eight trips over two years in the Ora Banda region ofWestern Australia. The number of individuals capturedwas highest for both mammals and reptiles on the firstday that pit-traps were open. For mammals, catch ratesdeclined over a period of four consecutive days and thenremained at that level. All species were likely to becaptured in the first two days of trapping days with thetrapping strategy that we used. For reptiles, catch ratesdeclined for the first four days then increased to a levelsimilar to days 2 and 3. New species of reptiles werecaptured after the fourth day of trapping, so extendedperiods of pit-trapping increases the proportion ofspecies in the assemblage that are captured, although thereturn on trapping effort declines.