Dataset from: How animal behaviour shapes indirect transmission risk of animal tuberculosis in Mediterranean ecosystems

Bovine tuberculosis (TB) is a major concern in Iberia’s Mediterranean ecosystems. We used camera traps in southern Portugal to study how wildlife host behaviour influences Mycobacterium bovis transmission. Red deer showed the highest temporal overlap with cattle, especially in forests during the wet season. Foraging was common across species, while cattle and red deer frequently shared water sources. High-risk behaviors were most prevalent in red deer and correlated with areas of high environmental pathogen concentration. These findings emphasize that integrating host behavior and environmental context is vital for developing targeted disease management strategies in complex multi-host systems. The data was collected in Barrancos (Portugal) and refers to camera-trap independent records for five mammal species (MOVERCULOSIS_EMF-etal_TemporalPatterns_and_Overlap_CC_BY) and respective behavioural records derived from independent camera-trap detections (MOVERCULOSIS_EMF-etal_Behaviour_analysis_CC_BY).