Using camera traps to estimate site occupancy of invasive Argentine black and white tegus (Salvator merianae) in South Florida

The introduction of nonnative species is a leading cause of biodiversity loss. Many invasive species are cryptic or elusive in nature and therefore often evade detection, complicating their management. Occupancy modeling can reveal the presence and spread of invasive species over time and therefore has important management implications. Camera traps can be used to estimate occupancy, or the proportion of sites that are occupied by a target species. During a 4-year study (2016–2020), we used camera traps both with and without lures to detect the presence of invasive Argentine Black and White Tegus (Salvator merianae) at sites in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Our results from a multi-season occupancy model revealed that a quadratic effect of ordinal day was the best predictor of detection, with a peak in June, while occupancy was correlated with distance to landscape features that may facilitate tegu movement.  We did not detect any large-scale changes in occupancy over the course of our st..., Field-site Description
We conducted our research in Miami-Dade County in southern Florida, USA (Figure 1). Most of our sampling effort was concentrated in the Southern Glades Wildlife and Environmental Area (25°19'54\"N, 80°30'56\"W); however, we also sampled north of the Southern Glades in the Redlands Agricultural Area, along the eastern boundary of Everglades National Park, just west of Biscayne National Park, and along US Highway 1, north of Key Largo. Our study area is mainly characterized by marshland intersected by canals, vegetated levees, and berms. Agricultural and residential areas as well as hardwood hammocks also fall within the boundaries of our study site. South Florida experiences a subtropical climate with a wet season occurring from late spring into fall and a dry season spanning from fall to spring (Obeysekera et al. 1999). 
Camera Trap Surveillance
Between 15 February 2016 and 31 December 2019, we placed camera traps (models: Moultrie M-880, Moultrie M-880 Gen2, Moultr..., , # Using camera traps to estimate site occupancy of invasive Argentine black and white tegus (Salvator merianae) in South Florida

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jsxksn0kp](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jsxksn0kp)

## Description of the data and file structure

Dataset to support 'Using Camera Traps to Estimate Site Occupancy of Invasive Argentine Black and White Tegus (Salvator merianae) in South Florida'. Samantha N. Smith, Melissa A. Miller, Hardin Waddle, Sarah Cooke, Amy A. Yackel Adams, Andrea Currylow, Kevin Donmoyer and Frank Mazzotti. 2024. Southeastern Naturalist

These data are used to estimate occupancy, detection, colonization and extinction probabilities of invasive Argentine Black and White Tegus at 87 unique sites in South Florida, USA over the course of 4 primary sampling periods (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019). This dataset includes detection matrices, detection covariates, site-level covariates and yearly covariates that were used to create several dynamic occupancy models.

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