Nine-banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) occupancy and density across an urban to rural gradient

The nine-banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) is the only species of Armadillo in the United States and alters ecosystems by excavating extensive burrows used by many other wildlife species. Relatively little is known about its habitat use or population densities, particularly in developed areas, which may be key to facilitating its range expansion. We evaluated Armadillo occupancy and density in relation to anthropogenic and landcover variables in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas along an urban to rural gradient. Armadillo detection probability was best predicted by temperature (positively) and precipitation (negatively). Contrary to expectations, occupancy probability of Armadillos was best predicted by slope (negatively) and elevation (positively) rather than any landcover or anthropogenic variables. Armadillo density varied considerably between sites (ranging from a mean of 4.88 – 46.20 Armadillos per km2) but was not associated with any environmental or anthropogenic variables., Site Selection
Our study took place in Northwest Arkansas, USA, in the greater Fayetteville metropolitan area. We deployed trail cameras (Spypoint Force Dark (Spypoint Inc, Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada) and Browning Strikeforce XD cameras (Browning, Morgan, Utah, USA) over the course of two winter seasons, December 2020-March 2021, and November 2021-March 2022. We sampled 10 study sites in year one, and 12 study sites in year two. All study sites were located in the Ozark Mountains ecoregion in Northwest Arkansas. Sites were all Oak Hickory dominated hardwood forests at similar elevation (213.6 – 541 m). Devils Eyebrow and ONSC are public natural areas managed by the Arkansas Natural heritage Commission (ANHC). Devil’s Den and Hobbs are managed by the Arkansas state park system. Markham Woods (Markham), Ninestone Land Trust (Ninestone) and Forbes, are all privately owned, though Markham has a publicly accessible trail system throughout the property. Lake Sequoyah, Mt. Sequoyah Woods, K..., , # Nine-banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) occupancy and density across an urban to rural gradient

Data Description

McTigue and DeGregorio Armadillo Occupancy Data 2023:

This dataset contains wildlife detections from game cameras at 17 study sites in Northwest Arkansas, ranging from urban green space sites within downtown Fayetteville to more natural sites within the Ozark Mountain Ecoregion. Each row represents a wildlife detection on motion-triggered game camera.

* Camera ID: Cameras at each site were given a unique ID. The ID is a combination of the site name and camera number. The number was assigned to each camera before deployment based on camera inventory.
* Date of Detection: The date the camera detected this particular wildlife occurrence.
* Study Year: Value of 1 or 2 indicating which year of the study the data was recorded. Study year 1 was conducted between December 2020 and March 2021. Study Year two was conducted between November 2021 and March 2022.
* Spec...