Data from: Coyotes display minimal response to Cougar scent at experimental carcass sites

## ReadMe Metadata for manuscript on coyote scavenging experiment prepared by Mitchell Parsons and Julie Young. This metadata file describes the data for a manuscript prepared by Mitchell Parsons and Julie Young investigating behavior of coyotes scavenging at simulated cougar cache sites. We deployed road killed deer as simulated cougar kills and treated half of sites with cougar scent. We observed coyote behavior using remote cameras. We then analyzed data to understand whether coyote behavior (e.g. time to discovery, time to touch, time spent vigilant), varied based on the addition of cougar scent or other environmental factors. This resource This manuscript has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Mammalogy in April 2024. ### DATAFILES ##### SimCacheSites.csv This file contains information for each of the 37 simulated cache sites used in this study including dates deployed, locations, and some summary information related to visits by coyotes and other scavengers. Each row represents a single cache site. *Columns* 1. SiteID: the ID of the simulated cache site 2. DateInstalled: the date the cache site and camera were deployed on the landscape in MDY format. 3. DateRecov: the date the camera was removed from this location in MDY format. 4. Easting: the UTM easting coordinate of the cache site. All coordinates in WGS84 UTM zone 10N 5. Northing: the UTM northing coordinate of the cache site. All coordinates in WGS84 UTM zone 10N 6. Elev: the elevation of the cache site, in meters. 7. Pair: identifies which pair of cache sites, one treated and one untreated, this cache site was a member of. 8. Treatment: whether this cache site received the treatment of cougar urine and gland (1) or not (0). 9. NumCoyVideos: The number of videos of coyotes at this cache site. 10. NumCoy Hits: The number of independent coyote visits to this cache site. Individual visits can lead to multiple videos. 11. Lion: Whether or not a mountain lion visited this cache site. 12. LionDate: The date of the mountain lion visit in MDY H:M format. 13. Bobcat: Whether or not a bobcat visited this cache site. 14. BobcatDate: The date of the bobcat visit in MDY H:M format. 15. Fox: Whether or not a fox visited this cache site. 16. SpottedSkunk: Whether or not a spotted skunk visited this cache site. 17. SkunkDate: The date of the skunk visit in MDY H:M format. 18. AvianDate: The date of avian scavengers visiting the cache site in MDY H:M format. NAs for LionDate, BobcatDate, SkunkDate, and AvianDate indicate where no visit was recorded and thus there is no date to report NAs for Bobcat indicate that we did not collect data on whether a bobcat was observed at the site. ##### CacheSite\_EventData.csv This file contains the behavior coding data for coyote visits to cache sites. Each row of the dataframe contains an individual behavioral bout and the information associated with that behavior and the cache site it occurred at. *Columns* 1. Cache: The cache site the observation occurred at 2. Observation: A unique identifier for independent observations of coyotes at cache sites. Independent observations were defined as those that occurred >60 minutes after previous coyote visits. 3. Media.file: The name of the video file that the behavior occurred in. 4. Total.media.length: The total duration of the video file the behavior occurred in (secons). 5. Date: The date and time the video file began in MDY H:M format. 6. Night: Whether or not the observation occurred at night. 7. OtherAnimals: Whether other animals were present during the observation. 8. Subject: The ID of the individual coyote observed in the video. 9. Behavior: What behavior is being displayed by the coyote at this time. Refer to table 1 in the manuscript for definition of behaviors. 10. Modifiers: Whether or not “smell” behavior was associated with feeding or with investigating competitor scent. 11. Behavior.type: Whether the observed behavior was a point behavior (i.e., no time passed) or a state behavior (i.e., a behavioral state the individual maintained for some time). 12. Start: The time in the video file when the behavior began (seconds). 13. Stop: The time in the video file when the behavior ended (seconds). This value is 0 for all point behaviors as these behaviors were not associated with elapsed time. 14. Comment.start: NA 15. Comment.stop: NA 16. Snowing: Whether or not it was actively snowing when the observation occurred (1,0). 17. DateInstalled: the date the cache site and camera were deployed on the landscape in MDY format. 18. DateRecov: the date the camera was removed from this location in MDY format. 19. Easting: the UTM easting coordinate of the cache site. All coordinates in WGS84 UTM zone 10N 20. Northing: the UTM northing coordinate of the cache site. All coordinates in WGS84 UTM zone 10N 21. Pair: identifies which pair of cache sites, one treated and one untreated, this cache site was a member of. 22. Treatment: whether this cache site received the treatment of cougar urine and gland (1) or not (0). 23. NumCoyVideos: The number of videos of coyotes at this cache site. 24. NumCoy Hits: The number of independent coyote visits to this cache site. Individual visits can lead to multiple videos. 25. Lion: Whether or not a mountain lion visited this cache site. 26. LionDate: The date of the mountain lion visit in MDY H:M format. 27. Bobcat: Whether or not a bobcat visited this cache site. 28. BobcatDate: The date of the bobcat visit in MDY H:M format. 29. Fox: Whether or not a fox visited this cache site. 30. SpottedSkunk: Whether or not a spotted skunk visited this cache site. 31. SkunkDate: The date of the skunk visit in MDY H:M format. 32. AvianDate: The date of avian scavengers visiting the cache site in MDY H:M format. NAs for LionDate, BobcatDate, SkunkDate, and AvianDate indicate where no visit was recorded and thus there is no date to report NAs for Bobcat indicate that we did not collect data on whether a bobcat was observed at the site. ### CODE FILES ##### ParsonsandYoung\_CoyoteScavengingExperiment\_Code.r This file contains all code necessary to format data, conduct analyses, and create the visuals (except for figure 1) presented in the associated manuscript. The code file loads packages at the beginning, but the associated packages will need to be installed. As written, the code will save all figures as separate files in the working directory. The general workflow is as follows: 1. Load packages. 2. Conduct initial data formatting. 3. Analyze time of discovery data. 4. Analyze total time on camera data. 5. Analyze time to first touch data. 6. Analyze vigilance behavior data. 7. Analyze feeding behavior data. 8. Create plots for the above analyses. 9. Analyze temporal patterns of visits. 10. Create plots for temporal patterns of visits.