Single-Camera Trap Survey Designs Miss Detections: Impacts on Estimates of Occupancy and Community Metrics.

ABSTRACT: The use of camera traps as a tool for studying wildlife populations is commonplace. However, few have considered how the number of detections of wildlife differ depending upon the number of camera traps placed at cameras-sites, and how this impacts estimates of occupancy and community composition. During December 2015-February 2016, we deployed four camera traps per camera-site, separated into treatment groups of one, two, and four camera traps, in southern Illinois to compare whether estimates of wildlife community metrics and occupancy probabilities differed among survey methods. The overall number of species detected per camera-site was greatest with the four-camera survey method (P<0.0184). The four-camera survey method detected 1.25 additional species per camera-site than the one-came

SUBMITTER: Pease BS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5130212 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature