Muskrat captures in Flanders, Belgium

Dataset type

Deze dataset bevat primaire waarnemingsgegevens voor soorten.

Beschrijving

Muskrat captures in Flanders, Belgium is an occurrence dataset published by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It contains information on all officially registered captures of muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) in and around Flanders, Belgium between 1991 and 2018. These data are provided by different management actors: the Flanders Environment Agency (VMM), Rattenbestrijding Oost-Vlaanderen (RATO vzw), Polders and Wateringen (vvpw), and provincial and municipal trappers, and aggregated and analyzed by the INBO since 1991. Here it is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each occurrence record an occurrenceID, date, location, samplingProtocol (trap) and samplingEffort (number of days or traps), scientific name, and the organization who made the capture. The original dataset contains close to 450.000 occurrences and is available on GitHub, but only presence records (over 103.000) are included in this version, which can be used to track muskrat distribution in Flanders since 1991. Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/inbo/mica-occurrences/issues We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the INBO norms for data use https://www.inbo.be/en/norms-data-use) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don't hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via opendata@inbo.be. This dataset was published for the MICA project, which received funding from the European Union’s LIFE Environment sub-programme under the grant agreement LIFE18 NAT/NL/001047.

Geografische beschrijving

In and around Flanders, Belgium

Doel

Muskrat catch data are collected by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) to monitor muskrat populations and the efficiency of their management in Flanders. Management has been going since 1938 and although some data collection happened before 1991 (e.g. Geeraerts-Bracops 1974) it is only from this point forward that all catches were collected systematically per month and per municipality. Since management was and is spread over different management actors (the Flanders Environment Agency (VMM), Rattenbestrijding Oost-Vlaanderen (RATO vzw), Polders and Wateringen (vvpw), and provincial and municipal trappers) data needed to be integrated to get a full view of the status of muskrat populations in Flanders and their management. More recently this dataset has also been used to report (Adriaens et al. 2019) on the management of Invasive Alien Species of Union Concern (Regulation (EU) 1143/2014).

Gegevenskwaliteit

See step description.

Methoden

Source data are submitted by the different management actors on either a monthly or yearly basis. Initially these submission where done by mailing the monthly numbers which were then digitized in Excel spreadsheet. Since the early 2000s all management actors have switched to submitting their catches in Excel spreadsheets.A csv export of the master Excel spreadsheet was uploaded to a GitHub repository https://github.com/inbo/muskrat-occurrences).We developed a RMarkdown script to document and perform the transformation of the data to Darwin Core, which includes the following steps:Perform some basic data cleaning of the raw data.Create an occurrence core file http://rs.gbif.org/core/dwc_occurrence_2015-07-02.xml) for presence-only and all data.The presence-only Darwin Core data file is uploaded to the INBO IPT and documented with metadata.The dataset is published and registered with GBIF.

Type inhoud

Omvat: Puntvoorkomstengegevens.

Bronvermelding

Cartuyvels E, Brosens D, Adriaens T, Baert K, Desmet P, Devisscher S, Neukermans A, Stuyck J, Huysentruyt F (2021): Muskrat captures in Flanders, Belgium. v1.9. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). Dataset/Occurrence. https://doi.org/10.15468/pequ4z

Rechten

To the extent possible under law, the publisher has waived all rights to these data and has dedicated them to the Public Domain (CC0 1.0). Users may copy, modify, distribute and use the work, including for commercial purposes, without restriction.

Gedigitaliseerde records

Metadata voor het laatst bijgewerkt op 2025-06-23 11:56:22.0