Small Mammals of the Muskwa-Kechika
Management Area
Table of Contents

METHODS AND MATERIALS

I. Small Mammal Data
Our analyses were restricted to four groups of small mammals: shrews (Insectivora), bats (Chiroptera), lagomorphs (Lagomorpha), rodents (Rodentia). Most of the mammal records were derived from the BC Mammals Database (Nagorsen 2000), a Foxpro (.dbf file) database consisting of about 55,000 museum specimen records and 2,600 observational or literature records of terrestrial mammals from British Columbia. Most of the museum specimens which are housed in 26 North American museums have been examined by one of us (D. Nagorsen) to verify their identification and associated data. We initially extracted a smaller subset of records from northern British Columbia using taxonomic and location fields. Occurrences within the MKMA were determined by GIS analysis using UTM co-ordinates. Some of the mammal records predate reliable topographic mapping for British Columbia and most predate the advent of hand held GPS technology. Co-ordinates were based on general location descriptions recorded on specimen tags or field notes; most have a precision of about 1 km. Published papers and unpublished field notes were associated with many of the mammal records and they were used to refine co-ordinates. Copies of unpublished field notes from various museum expeditions are housed at the Royal British Columbia Museum. We also searched various government libraries in Prince George and Fort St. John for unpublished inventory reports on small mammals from the MKMA and adjacent areas in northern British Columbia. Because of restrictions on individual registered traplines, we could not use fur harvest return data as a source of distributional data for fur-bearers (i.e., Red Squirrel, Muskrat, Beaver) in the MKMA.

II. GIS Analysis
All GIS analyses were done by one of us (Peter Tollestrup) at the GIS laboratory, University of Northern British Columbia. Most GIS datasets used in the project were obtained from the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks (MELP). Readily useable ARC/INFO coverages for biogeoclimatic and ecological units, lakes and rivers, and parks/protected areas were obtained from the MELP ftp site. The small mammal records were initially in spreadsheet files and were converted into ARC/INFO point coverages. Overlays were used to generate tabular data and maps showing the distribution of small mammal record sites relative to the MKMA boundary, ecological and biogeoclimatic units, parks and protected areas, lakes, rivers, highways, and population centres. Small mammal records from sites within the MKMA boundary were tallied by their biogeoclimatic and ecosection units, as well as Parks. Records outside of the MKMA but within biogeoclimatic and ecosection units represented in the MKMA were also included in the analysis; separate totals were tallied for records within and outside of the MKMA. The area in hectares as well as relative to the entire MKMA are included to indicate observation intensity. The number of locations represented by the records is included to give a tabular indication of the distribution of sample sites.