Small mammals play a vital role in ecosystem function and are reservoir hosts for more than eighty zoonotic diseases worldwide. This project tested for relationships between small mammal relative abundance, tick relative abundance, and tick percentage testing positive for three tick-borne diseases: Lyme, anaplasmosis, and babesiosis. We randomly selected fifteen sites around Potsdam, New York, and trapped small mammals using Sherman and Pitfall traps for a total of thirty days between June-August 2023. On three occasions, we also dragged for ticks at each site. The total number of small mammals captured was 240, of which 188 represented the three species that are the main carriers of Lyme, anaplasmosis, and babesiosis: Peromyscus spp, Tamias striatus, and Blarina brevicauda. Data analysis shows the total number of carriers is not a significant predictor of the number of ticks (p=.445), but it is a significant predictor of the number of ticks positive for Lyme (p=.043).
