Data and code from: Wildlife temporal behaviors in response to human activity changes during and following COVID-19 park closures

With urbanization reducing the amount of available wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation increasing the human activity within wildlife habitats, it is important to understand the effects of human activity on animal behavior. This study examined how the reduction in human presence in urban parks in Gainesville, Florida affected the temporal behaviors of medium- and large-bodied mammals and ground birds. Camera-trap surveys were conducted during (2020) and following (2023) the closure of urban parks that are typically open to human recreation due to Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), with the shutdown providing a unique opportunity to study wildlife under reduced human activity. We detected biologically significant shifts in activity patterns that were consistent with avoidance of increased presence of predators (bobcat, coyote, fox) and with avoidance of human activity (white-tailed deer) when the parks were re-opened. Temporal behavior pattern shifts can have significant effects on foraging..., , # Data and code from: Wildlife temporal behaviors in response to human activity changes during and following COVID-19 park closures Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.rjdfn2zr3](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rjdfn2zr3) ## Description of the data and file structure Camera trap data was organized using Agouti software and downloaded into an Excel file, for which the code is attached. This data was then analyzed using R, for which the file is also attached. ### Files and variables #### File: COVID.data_code.R **Description:**Â Code for original camera trap data analysis. #### File: time_transformation_standardization_code.R **Description:** Updated code that accounts for seasonality following reviewer feedback. #### File: CTdata_all_9.4.25.xlsx **Description:**Â Compiled camera trap observations from Agouti. ##### Variables * Site, stage (peak covid or post covid), name (observation ID), date, time, species, count ## Code/software Excel or any spreadsheet viewer for the camera trap da...,