Placement matters: Implications of trail- versus random-based camera-trap deployment for monitoring mammal communities.

ABSTRACT: Optimizing protocols to assess and monitor mammal communities is essential to meet the current biodiversity targets of halting species loss. Camera-traps are the most effective tool for multispecies monitoring, yet their deployment strategy is debated, with two main strategies adopted: trail- and random-based camera deployment. To date, few studies have compared these two strategies and reached contrasting recommendations. Here, by simultaneously deploying 60 camera-traps for each placement strategy in a National Park in central Italy, we aimed to assess differences in species richness and composition, photographic rate, detection/occupancy probabilities, also in responses to environmental and anthropogenic variables, and temporal activity. Site species richness was greater on than off-tra

SUBMITTER: Greco I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12329709 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature