Development, validation and application of enhanced-welfare technology for wild small mammal research

野生小型哺乳动物如老鼠和田鼠是许多研究领域的常见研究对象，包括生态学，保护学，进化生物学和土地管理。然而，目前研究这些动物的方法通常包括重复设置活体陷阱（一种捕获-标记-再捕获的方法）或无线电跟踪。这两种方法都引起了人们对动物福利的关注。小型哺乳动物在困笼中可能会体重减轻，有时甚至会死亡，而无线电追踪需要在小动物身上安装发射器，这可能会妨碍它们的自然行为，降低它们的存活率。重要的是，活体诱捕也是不分青红皂白的，因此许多被捕获的动物不需要用于研究，包括非目标物种或已经被捕获且不需要再次捕获的动物。这些传统的方法是基于简单的技术（金属陷阱或无线电发射机），然而，比起提高动物福利和获得的科学数据的质量，开发更复杂的解决方案是有技术基础的。特别是，微芯片（PIT标签）经常用于手持扫描仪识别个人。然而，PIT标签技术的潜力远远超出了这个角色。在本提案中，我们将利用这一点，并开发，验证和应用两种基于PIT标签技术的新型设备，这将减少不必要的捕获并改善小型哺乳动物研究中的福利。第一种是“智能陷阱”，它能够根据特定动物的PIT标签和体重来决定是否陷阱。这将允许排除特定大小范围之外的物种（例如，在啮齿动物研究中常见的副捕获物鼩鼱），并防止不必要的重新捕获标记动物。它还将具有自动释放功能，允许收集粪便样本（在流行病学研究中通常需要），而不必让动物在陷阱中待一整夜并被处理以释放。第二个设备是一个“空间记录器”，可以监测标记动物的行踪。当被标记的动物经过距离记录器30厘米的范围内时，它的存在就会被记录下来。通过在野外放置一套这样的设备，研究人员可以监测单个动物的运动和生存情况，而不需要反复捕捉它们或安装无线电发射器并主动跟踪它们。我们将从目前的原型中开发这两种设备，验证它们在野外的性能，并将它们应用于野生木鼠和田鼠的研究中，以证明它们的科学价值以及它们如何改善动物福利。这项研究还将展示它们如何促进使用传统方法无法接近的全新科学。具体来说，我们将利用它们来研究社会互动如何影响野生小鼠肠道细菌的传播。社会互动是很难衡量的，特别是对于那些小的、夜间活动的、在地下筑巢的动物。我们将使用空间记录器来监测木鼠的社会互动，将它们放置在我们的田野和洞穴入口处，记录谁与谁筑巢以及它们的家园范围如何重叠。我们将把这与每只小鼠肠道微生物的数据进行比较（使用应用于陷阱粪便样本的分子方法），以评估肠道微生物的共享，以及哪些特别的肠道微生物是通过社会互动模式预测的。我们的目标是这两个设备，以实现最大的影响，通过最终在小型哺乳动物研究广泛采用。为了实现这一目标，我们的提案中包含了传播和商业化计划，包括由其他四个研究小组对设备进行试验，举办一个研讨会，以及在针对科学家、决策者和公众的各种会议上传播研究结果。

Wild small mammals such as mice and voles are common study subjects in many fields of research including ecology, conservation, evolutionary biology and land management. However, current methods for studying these animals usually involve either the repeated setting of live-traps (a capture-mark-recapture approach), or radio-tracking. Both methods raise concerns for animal welfare. Small mammals can lose weight and sometimes die during trap confinement, and radio-tracking involves the attachment of a transmitter to small animals, which can impede their natural behaviour and reduce survival. Importantly, live-trapping is also indiscriminate, such that many captured animals are not required for research, including non-target species or animals that have already been captured and do not need to be captured again. These traditional approaches are based on simple technology (metal traps or radio-transmitters), yet the technological foundations are available to develop more sophisticated solutions than improve both animal welfare and the quality of scientific data obtained. In particular, microchips (PIT tags) are frequently used to identify individuals with a handheld scanner. However, PIT tag technology has potential far beyond this role. In this proposal, we will tap into this, and develop, validate and apply two novel devices based on PIT tag technology that will reduce unnecessary captures and refine welfare in small mammal studies. The first is an "intelligent trap", which is capable of making decisions about whether to trap a given animal based on its PIT tag and weight. This will allow species outside a particular size range to be excluded (e.g. shrews that are common by-catch in rodent studies) and prevent unnecessary recapture of tagged animals. It will also have an auto-release feature, allowing collection of faecal samples (commonly required in epidemiological studies) without animals having to stay a full night in traps and be handled for release. The second device is a "spatial logger" that can monitor the whereabouts of tagged animals. When a tagged animal passes within 30cm of the logger, it's presence is recorded. By placing a set of these across a field site, researchers can monitor individual animal movements and survival without the need to repeatedly capture them or attach radio-transmitters and actively follow them. We will develop both devices from our current prototypes, validate their performance in the field, and apply them in a study on wild wood mice and bank voles to demonstrate their scientific value and how they improve animal welfare. This study will also show how they facilitate completely novel science that cannot be approached using traditional methods. Specifically, we will use them to ask how social interactions affect the spread of gut bacteria among wild mice. Social interactions are hard to measure, particularly for animals that are small, nocturnal and nest underground. We will use spatial loggers to monitor wood mouse social interactions by placing them across our field site and at burrow entrances, to record who nests with whom and how their home ranges overlap. We will compare this to data on which gut microbes are present in each mouse (using molecular methods applied to faecal samples from traps) to assess how sharing of gut microbes, and which ones in particular, is predicted by patterns of social interaction. We aim for these two devices to achieve maximum impact through eventual widespread uptake in small mammal research. To achieve this, dissemination and commercialisation plans feature in our proposal, including trialling of devices by four other research groups, a workshop, and communication of findings at a variety of meetings targeting scientists, policymakers and the general public.