Long-term monitoring of animal association patterns with desert shrubs at Panoche Hills Ecological Reserve, California pre and post removal, in 2015

40 shrubs were selected for use in the shrub removal experiment that had scat present in 2013 and 2014. Of these 40 shrubs, 20 were selected as controls and 20 were selected as removal shrubs to be removed in 2015. Cameras were set up in pairs at 14 shrub locations, 7 controls and 7 to-be removed. A total of 28 cameras were deployed in pairs shrub-open. Cameras were deployed on May 15. One camera malfunctioned during the experiment and was removed such that 27 cameras remained at the end of the experiment. Open cameras paired with control shrubs monitored control open locations. Open cameras paired with a removal shrub monitored areas where a mimic would be constructed. Cameras were deployed until June 30 and were routinely checked for battery life and memory storage. When cameras needed batteries changed or pictures were removed from memory cards they were immediately re-deployed (battery changes and picture downloads occurred in-field). Cameras were mounted on 20-30cm plastic tent pegs. Pictures were processed for presence of animals. Any picture with any animal was retained and information including, temperature, date, moon-phase, species, number of pictures and visitation rate were recorded. Pictures without animals were discarded.

本研究选取2013年与2014年均存在动物粪便痕迹的40株灌木，用于开展灌丛移除实验。在该40株灌木中，20株被设为对照组，剩余20株作为移除组灌木，将于2015年实施移除操作。研究人员在14处灌丛点位（含7处对照组点位与7处待移除组点位）成对布设监测相机，共计部署28台成对相机于灌丛开阔区域。所有相机于5月15日完成布设。实验期间有1台相机发生故障并被移除，实验结束时剩余有效相机27台。与对照灌木配对布设的开阔区域相机，用于监测对照灌丛周边的开阔生境；与待移除灌木配对布设的相机，则用于监测将搭建模拟移除点位的区域。相机布设周期为5月15日至6月30日，期间定期检查电池电量与存储卡存储空间。若相机需要更换电池或导出存储卡内的照片，工作人员将在野外现场完成相关操作并立即重新部署相机。相机均固定于20-30厘米高的塑料帐篷钉上。对拍摄照片进行动物出现情况的筛查处理：所有包含至少1只动物的照片均予以保留，并记录温度、拍摄日期、月相、物种、照片总数及访问率等相关信息；无动物的照片则直接丢弃。