Brown rats are widespread in agroecosystems, but our understanding of factors affecting their activity is incomplete due to cryptic, nocturnal behaviours. Indirect monitoring methods include tracking plates and camera traps. Supplementary feeding of game birds may provide resources for rats away from farm buildings, allowing them to persist in winter when there is little other food available. Developing reliable methods to monitor such populations will facilitate landscape-scale studies of rat populations in farm environments and aid ecologically based approaches for controlling rats on farms. We compared camera traps and tracking plates to monitor brown rat activity near game bird feeders at a mixed farm in Northumberland, UK. Generalized linear models (GLM) were used to compare rat incidence estimated from camera traps and tracking plates. A strong positive relationship was found between the two methods, although tracking plate estimates were less reliable when rat activity was very low. Factors that affected populations of brown rats near game bird feeders were assessed via linear mixed-effect models (LMM) of monthly tracking plate data (October 2017 to September 2018). Populations were highest at the feeders (0 m) compared with further away (10 m, 20 m) and were also higher in periods of cold, wet weather and when more food was available from the feeders. Rodenticide application near feeders did not significantly affect activity, nor did land cover 100 m around each feeder. A highly significant relationship was detected with food supply, suggesting that the use of game bird feeders could potentially have major impacts on rat population dynamics.

褐鼠在农业生态系统中很普遍，但是由于隐秘的夜间行为，我们对影响其活动的因素的理解还不完全。间接监视方法包括跟踪板和摄像机陷阱。野鸟的补充喂养可以为远离农舍的老鼠提供资源，使它们在冬天几乎没有其他食物可用时可以生存。开发监测此类种群的可靠方法将有助于对农场环境中的鼠类种群进行景观规模研究，并有助于基于生态学的方法来控制农场中的鼠类。在英国诺森伯兰郡的一个混合农场中，我们比较了相机陷阱和跟踪板来监测野鸟喂食器附近的褐鼠活动。使用广义线性模型（GLM）来比较从相机陷阱和跟踪板估计的大鼠发病率。两种方法之间发现有很强的正相关关系，尽管当大鼠活动度很低时跟踪板估计值的可靠性较低。通过每月跟踪板数据的线性混合效应模型（LMM）（2017年10月至2018年9月）评估了影响猎鸟饲养场附近的褐鼠种群的因素。与更远的地方（10 m，20 m）相比，饲养者的种群数量最高（0 m），而在寒冷，潮湿的天气以及饲养者可以提供更多食物时，种群也更高。在支线附近施用杀鼠剂不会显着影响活动，每个支线周围100 m的土地覆盖也没有。在食物供应方面发现了高度重要的关系，这表明使用野鸟喂食器可能会对大鼠种群动态产生重大影响。