Community structure and seasonal abundance of rodents of maize farms in Southwestern Tanzania

Community characteristics and seasonal abundance of rodents were investigated in a small-scale maize field-fallow land mosaic in Southwestern Tanzania between February 2001 and May 2002. During the study, a total of 2568 rodents were captured in 9150 trapnights giving a 28\% trap success. Also shrews of the genus Crocidura (Soricidae) were recorded. Mastomys natalensis comprised the highest proportion of rodents caught accounting for 82.9\% of all captures. Other rodent genera captured included : Tatera, Saccostomus, Graphiurus, and Steatomys. Relative densities as measured by both trap success and the number of rodents per hectare, and biomass varied between seasons with and without crop in the field but not between habitat types. The work reports seasonality in breeding for the two most commonly trapped species, Mastomys natalensis and Tatera leucogasler.