The Ecorat project: development of ecologically-based rodent management for the southern African region

The aim of this study was to carry out basic ecological research on rodent pests within subsistence-level agricultural communities in Africa. A range of techniques were used to collect baseline ecological knowledge on the temporal and spatial dynamics of rodent populations within rural farming communities in Tanzania, Swaziland and Namibia. These techniques included habitat surveys using removal trapping, capture-mark-recapture grids, and radio tracking of individually tagged animals. We also studied the local communities’ knowledge, attitudes and practices with respect to rodents and their control, the current cost of rodent damage and the costs/benefits of rodent control. Based on these data, a case-control trial was implemented to evaluate an ecologically-based rodent management (EBRM) intervention using intensive trapping coordinated at the community level. Results showed that intensive trapping using community based rodent management was cost-beneficial for rural farming communities, and these EBRM strategies are ecologically sustainable. Our research has shown that efficacy is more than 75% when compared to what farmers normally do to reduce rat populations. Farmer training and community cooperation are essential, and expertise in social anthropology to develop appropriate knowledge dissemination platforms must be supported.