Ecology, diversity and distribution of terrestrial small mammals in southeastern Sierra Leone

Abstract An inventory of terrestrial small mammals was conducted at five sites in southeastern Sierra Leone with the aim of documenting species diversity, abundance and distribution. Trapping was done using Sherman live traps, Victor traps, Tomahawk live traps and pitfall traps in five habitats across five sites. Based on morphological and DNA barcode-based identification, we recorded a total of 28 terrestrial small mammal species, including 20 rodents and eight shrews in 13,770 trap nights with an average trap success rate of 7 %. We document a possible country record for the rodent species Dephomys cf. eburneae , raising the total known rodent species for the country to 42 species. Furthermore, we document first country record for the shrew species Crocidura longipes , raising the total known shrew species for the country to 15. This study contributes to the knowledge and conservation of terrestrial small mammal diversity and occurrence in Sierra Leone and also provides baseline information for the five study sites. Finally, this study further demonstrates the potential importance of the study sites for conservation of terrestrial small mammals in Sierra Leone.