Wildlife Ecology Regional Planning

The centre of the Austrian alpine study area Gerlitzen-Mirnock is located at 46.7273° eastern longitude and 13.7869° northern latitude (WGS84). It covers an area of 324 km² with an altitude between 485 and 2,145 m above sea level. We deployed 30 camera traps (CTs) throughout the study area, where we had the permission from landowners and local hunting communities. All CTs were distributed at altitudes ranging from 670 m to 1,673 m above sea level (mean 1,190 m a.s.l.). To increase the detection probability of red deer, we installed the CTs along wildlife trails. We used passive infrared motion-triggered cameras (SecaCam Pro, VenTrade Gmbh, Cologne, Germany) with an 80° field of view. The CTs were mounted on trees at a height of between 50 and 100 cm, facing the wildlife trail. The cameras were programmed to take five consecutive 4 MP sized images after being triggered, with no delay between the first and next camera trigger. We defined a sighting as a sequence of camera images showing an individual of the same species and annotated each sighting with species, sex and age class.