This dataset contains records of the small-mammals, primarily Rodentia, trapped across West Africa and included in published literature that was obtained through a comprehensive review of rodent trapping studies across the region. Data were extracted from studies to produce detection, non-detection histories at described trapping locations. Geolocation were perfored on all included locations. Individual species that were detected elsewhere in the contributing studies records but were not reported from a trapping location were interepreted as non-detections and so explicitly recorded as 0 counts.