Romeo, Claudia http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5964-2847
Piscitelli, Anna Pia http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7307-3567
Santicchia, Francesca http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4814-9632
Martinoli, Adriano http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0298-0869
Ferrari, Nicola http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8959-3495
Wauters, Lucas A. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4871-5035
Funding for this research was provided by:
Università degli Studi dell'Insubria
Article History
Received: 19 March 2021
Accepted: 23 July 2021
First Online: 12 August 2021
Declarations
:
: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
: All authors have given their consent to participate.
: All authors have given their consent for publication of this paper upon acceptance.
: <i>Animal welfare note</i>: We used free-living animals from wild populations. Our procedures of trapping, handling and marking squirrels complied with the Guidelines for the treatment of animals in behavioural research and teaching (Animal Behaviour, 2020, 159, I-XI; ExternalRef removed). We partly covered the Tomahawk Live Traps (Model 202, Tomahawk Live Trap Co., Hazelhurst, WI, USA) with dark plastic bag to provide animals with shelter, and checked traps three times/day to minimize time in trap. Before handling, we completely covered the trap with a cloth to reduce stress. We flushed the trapped animal in a zipper-tube handling bag to reduce direct contact with the operator. At first capture, we marked each squirrel with a Monel 1005 1L1 ear-tag (size 2.3–10 mm, 0.2 g or less than 0.1% of squirrel’s body mass; National Band & Tag Co. Newport, KY, USA), putting the tag near the base of the ear to reduce risk of injury. There is no evidence that ear-tags affect grooming behaviour or occurrence of ectoparasite around the ear region. To reduce stress, only trained researchers handled the squirrels, and handling time was kept as short as possible (< 5 min). The animals were released at the trap site immediately after handling. Since the study was part of long-term population dynamics research project, that aimed at estimating population size based on CMR, all animals captured were marked (no sample size restrictions). Trapping and handling squirrels complied with the current laws on animal research in Italy (legal requirements according to the Italian Wildlife Protection and Hunting Law L.N. 157 from 1992, and scientific guidelines from the Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, ISPRA) and were carried out under permissions of the authorities for wildlife research and management of Lombardy Region, the province of Cuneo, and the province/città metropolitana of Turin. Fieldwork was approved by authorizations N. 180–14616 of 06/07/2011, N. 294–34626 of 12/09/2014 from the Provincia di Torino and N. 62–3025 (2017–2019) from the Città Metropolitana di Torino; Protocol N.0046790 of 06/07/2011 and N. 0002624 of 13/01/2014 from the province of Cuneo; and decrees N. 1702 (23/02/2009), N. 11190 (29/11/2013), N. 9523 (15/10/2014) and N. 198 (13/01/2017) from Direzione Generale Agricoltura, Regione Lombardia, Italy. (include appropriate approvals or waivers).