An Adapted Method for Sampling Earthworms at Night in Wildlife Studies

• Published in: The Journal of wildlife management Vol. 70; no. 3; pp. 852 - 858
• Main Authors: DURIEZ, OLIVIER, FERRAND, YVES, BINET, FRANÇOISE
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.06.2006; The Wildlife Society; Wiley
• Subjects: Agricultural soils; Animal behavior; Biomass; Continental interfaces, environment; Earthworms; Estimation methods; Eurasian woodcock; France; Habitats; Lumbricids; nocturnal predators; Predators; prey availability; research methods; Research Note; Research Notes; Sampling; sampling method; Sampling techniques; Sciences of the Universe; Scolopax ruticola; Soil ecology; Soil samples; Species; Spraying; wildlife management; Worms; France
• ISSN: 0022-541X; 1937-2817
• DOI: 10.2193/0022-541X(2006)70[852:AAMFSE]2.0.CO;2

The availability of earthworms at night has not yet been quantitatively assessed, and no study has focused on the reliability of the diurnal standard method for estimating nocturnal earthworm availability. Here, Duriez, Ferrand, and Binet describe an original method to sample earthworms, designed for wildlife biologists studying nocturnal vertebrate predators. The new sampling procedure involves visual harvesting at night and hand sorting of earthworms collected from soil cores collected at night.