Effective rodent monitoring tools are needed to allow agricultural producers and pest control specialists to determine when rodent control strategies are needed, as well as to allow researchers to assess the efficacy of various management options. General indexing tools that utilize continuous response metrics, as well as traditional presence-absence indexing strategies, are commonly used for such monitoring programs, but their ability to track rodent abundance should be verified in different ecological systems. Therefore, we tested the ability of tracking tunnels (binary response only) and remote-triggered cameras (both binary and continuous response) to effectively track roof rat (Rattus rattus) abundance in three lemon (Citrus limon) and two orange (Citrus sinensis) orchards in the southern San Joaquin Valley, California. We placed remote-triggered cameras and tracking tunnels both on the ground and within trees to assess activity, and subsequently live-trapped roof rats in these same plots to determine an estimate of population size and minimum number known values. We used multiple linear regression to compare these values to allow us to determine the effectiveness of these monitoring tools at tracking roof rat abundance depending on the monitoring tool used, the vertical zone where traps were placed (i.e., within trees or on the ground), and the crop that was monitored. We determined that both tracking tunnels and remote-triggered cameras (both binary and continuous response metrics) were correlated to roof rat abundance irrespective of their location on the ground or in the trees. We also noted a difference in the relationship between index values and roof rat abundance for lemon and orange orchards, indicating the importance of considering orchard type when interpreting models. Regardless, tracking tunnels and remote-triggered cameras both effectively reflected roof rat abundance irrespective of orchard type, and as such, they both should prove useful for future monitoring projects in citrus orchards.

需要有效的啮齿动物监测工具，使农业生产者和害虫防治专家能够确定何时需要啮齿动物防治策略，并使研究人员能够评估各种管理方案的功效。利用连续响应指标的通用索引工具以及传统的存在-不存在索引策略通常用于此类监测程序，但它们跟踪啮齿动物丰度的能力应在不同的生态系统中进行验证。因此，我们测试了跟踪隧道（仅二进制响应）和远程触发相机（二进制和连续响应）以有效跟踪三种柠檬（Citrus limon）和两种橙子（Citrus sinensis）中屋顶鼠（Rattus rattus）丰度的能力) 加利福尼亚州圣华金山谷南部的果园。我们在地面和树木内放置了远程触发的摄像机和跟踪隧道以评估活动，随后在这些相同的地块中活捉屋顶老鼠，以确定种群规模和最小已知值的估计值。我们使用多元线性回归来比较这些值，以根据所使用的监测工具、放置陷阱的垂直区域（即，在树内或地面上）确定这些监测工具在跟踪屋顶老鼠数量方面的有效性，以及被监测的作物。我们确定跟踪隧道和远程触发的相机（二进制和连续响应指标）都与屋顶老鼠的数量相关，而不管它们在地面上还是在树上。我们还注意到柠檬园和橙园的指数值与屋顶鼠丰度之间的关系存在差异，这表明在解释模型时考虑果园类型的重要性。无论如何，无论果园类型如何，跟踪隧道和远程触发的摄像机都有效地反映了屋顶鼠的数量，因此，它们都应该被证明对未来柑橘园的监测项目很有用。