A 2002 census of large hamster burrows occupied in Alsace, conducted in winter cereal and alfalfa plots. The number of burrows identified via a semi-exhaustive protocol validated in 2000 by the ONCFS serves as an index of abundance for population status assessment. The dataset was published by the Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières and last updated in March 2019.
Use Cases
- Estimate population abundance indices for the European hamster based on burrow counts.
- Analyze habitat use differences between winter cereal and alfalfa plots based on survey spacing.
- Monitor long-term population trends for conservation status assessments.
- Validate or calibrate ecological survey protocols for rodent monitoring.
Strengths
- Census data from a specific year (2002) provides a historical snapshot.
- Survey protocol was validated by a recognized authority (ONCFS) in 2000.
- Data collection followed defined spatial sampling intervals (10m in cereal, 3m in alfalfa).
Limitations
- Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
- Last updated 2019-03-22 00:00:00; freshness should be verified.
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
Provenance
- Source
- Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM)
- Collection Method
- Semi-exhaustive field census protocol with defined spacing between enumerators.
- Time Range
- 2002
- Freshness
- Last updated 2019-03-22.
- Geography
- Alsace, France