Distribution pattern of commensal rodents in shops of urban Rawalpindi,Pakistan

Distribution patterns and relative abundance of the commensal murids in different types of shops of urban areas of rawalpindi,pakistan were recorded from february to october 2011 using cage traps. a total of 165 rodents (89 ratttus rattus,68 rattus novegicus and 8 mus musculus) were captured during 955 trap nights (trap success: 0.17). regression of daily captures on cumulative captures revealed an estimate of 228 rodents from all the sampled structures with an average of 5.18 rats per shop. house rats (r. rattus; 54% of captures) were numerically dominant in almost all types of structures sampled,but were not significantly different than the norway rats (r. norvegicus; 41% of captures). the norway rats are now more abundant than some 20 years ago in the area. both species of rattus spp. were found together in some shops (36.4%),while they were mostly trapped from the separate shops (63.6%). the sex ratio revealed that males outnumbered the females in both the major species. copyright 2014 zoological society of pakistan.