Small terrestrial mammals (Rodentia and Soricomorpha) along a gradient of forest anthropization (reserves, managed forests, urban parks) in France

Understanding the relationships between wildlife biodiversity and zoonotic infectious diseases in a changing climate is a challenging issue that scientists must address to support further policy actions. We aim at tackling this challenge by focusing on small mammal-borne diseases in temperate forests and large urban green spaces. Small mammals are important reservoirs of zoonotic agents; forests and green spaces are environments where small mammals are abundant, human/domestic-wildlife interactions are plausible to occur, and efforts are undertaken to preserve biodiversity. The dataset contains occurrences of small terrestrial mammals (Rodentia and Soricomorpha) trapped in forested areas in Eastern France (administrative departments: Rhône, Ain, Jura). The sampling sites correspond to different degrees of anthropization. Forests included in biological reserves are the less anthropized sites, then public forests and urban parks experience increasing levels of anthropization. Data were collected during spring and autumn 2020 (three to four sampling sites), 2021 (six sampling sites) and 2022 (four sampling sites). These variations in the number of sites between years were due to lockdown restrictions in 2020, or to the legal authorization to trap around biological reserves granted in 2021 only. The capture of animals was carried out in various types of forests (pine, deciduous, mixed), and in different habitats within urban parks (wooded areas, buildings, hay storage yards, riverside vegetation, restaurants, playground for kids, botanical garden, landfills…). Captures were realised using live traps that were set on the ground for one to 11 nights. During this study period, 1593 small mammals were trapped and identified. They belong to 15 species, among which there are nine species of rodents (Muridae, Cricetidae, Gliridae) and six species of shrews (Soricidae). They were weighted (gram) and measured (cm): both head body length, tail and hind foot length. Sexual characteristics were also recorded. This dataset aims to better understand the relationships between small terrestrial mammal biodiversity and health in the context of global change, and in particular of forest anthropization and urbanization. It is part of the European Biodiversa BioRodDis project (https://www6.inrae.fr/biodiversa-bioroddis). Here we present the data gathered in France. The dataset will enable to describe the diversity of small terrestrial mammal communities in forested areas corresponding to different levels of anthropization, and to evaluate the variability of this diversity over time, between seasons and years.