Spatiotemporal distributions of mammals occurring in an agro-prairie ecosystem.
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abstract
Anthropogenic activities since the European colonization of the North American Great Plains have drastically altered landscape composition and configuration, subsequently affecting native biodiversity. These contemporary human-modified landscapes may affect mammal species' distributions, diel activity patterns, habitat use, and interspecific interactions, though a better understanding of these effects on mammals occurring in remaining prairie landscapes is needed. To fill this gap, we surveyed 381 randomly selected sites in 2018, 2019, and 2020 using motion-sensing camera traps across the western part of the US state of Kansas (7,160,077ha). Sites were separated by 2km ( x $$ overline{x} $$ =8.16km, SD=3.61), and cameras were secured to a metal post 40cm above ground and randomly oriented toward the north or south. We placed an olfactory attractant (mixture of skunk essence and petroleum jelly) on a wooden stake 3m in front of each camera. Cameras were in place at each site for 28 consecutive days for each year. We manually identified all mammal species detected at each site, collating these data into a database that included taxonomic information for 14 families of mammals (Antilocapridae, Bovidae, Canidae, Cervidae, Cricetidae, Dasypodidae, Didelphidae, Erethizontidae, Felidae, Heteromyidae, Leporidae, Mephitidae, Mustelidae, Procyonidae, Sciuridae, and Muridae) comprising 28 total species. We recorded 31,178 mammal photographs (nonindependent events) over 27,954 camera trap nights during 2018 (n=10,351), 2019 (n=9478), and 2020 (n=8125). Additionally, we included the time and date of each photocapture. Moreover, we gathered survey-specific data useful for modeling species-specific detection along with site-level habitat composition data taken at each site each year. These data will be useful for examining habitat use, species distributions, diel activity patterns, and spatiotemporal interactions between species and across guilds of mammals occurring in a rapidly changing agro-prairie ecosystem. There are no copyright restrictions, but we ask researchers to cite this paper when using these data for publication.
