Mammal occurrence records (2015-18) in the Valparai Plateau and Anamalai Tiger Reserve, Western Ghats, India

This dataset contains Mammal occurrence records (2015-18) in the Valparai Plateau and Anamalai Tiger Reserve, Western Ghats, India. It includes a few occurrence records of other chordates. Occurrence records were gathered in the field by researchers of the Nature Conservation Foundation, India, using a mobile data collection application. Suggested citation is:
Nature Conservation Foundation (2022). Mammal occurrence records (2015-18) in the Valparai Plateau and Anamalai Tiger Reserve, Western Ghats, India. Nature Conservation Foundation, India. Dataset, Zenodo. DOI:

CONTACT #1
1. Name: T. R. Shankar Raman
2. Work Address: Nature Conservation Foundation, 1311, 12th A Main, Vijayanagar 1st Stage, Mysuru 570017, Karnataka, India
3. Work Phone: [phone]
4. Email address: [e-mail]
5. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1347-3953

CONTACT #2
1. Name: Divya Mudappa
2. Work Address: Nature Conservation Foundation, 1311, 12th A Main, Vijayanagar 1st Stage, Mysuru 570017, Karnataka, India
3. Work Phone: [phone]
4. Email address: [e-mail]
5. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9708-4826

Keywords: tropical rainforest, plantations, Anamalai Hills, animal distribution,  

Geographic Coverage:
1. Location/Study Area: Valparai Plateau, Tamil Nadu, India; Anamalai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu, India
2. GPS coordinates: Valparai Plateau (10°15'- 10°22'N, 76°52' - 76°59'E); Anamalai Tiger Reserve (10°12' - 10°35'N, 76°49' - 77°24'E)

Temporal Coverage:
1. Begins: 2015-01-01 (Year, Month, Day)
2. Ends: 2018-10-31 (Year, Month, Day)

Besides this 000_README.txt file, the dataset includes 326 images (photographs) and three comma-delimited text (csv) files as explained below:

001_valparai_mammals.csv -- raw data file from the mobile app (columns are self-explanatory)

002_valparai_mammals.csv  -- raw data file of linked images from the mobile app (columns are self-explanatory)

003_mammal_occurrence_zenodo_2015-18.csv -- curated and compiled dataset with the following columns:

observation_id: unique id given to a record (corresponds to fulcrum_id in raw data set) observation

latitude: latitude in decimal degrees N (WGS 84 datum)

longitude: longitude in decimal degrees E (WGS 84 datum)

date_: date of observation

time: time of observation

place: locality name

type_of_observation: type of observation indicating whether it was sighting, sign (based on Vocalisation/call, track/pugmark, scat/dung), death, electrocution, roadkill

notes: general notes and remarks including number of individuals where available

photo: reference id of corresponding photograph (as in the jpg filename)

gps_altitude: altitude in metres estimated by the phone GPS

gps_horizontal_accuracy: horizontal accuracy in metres estimated by the phone GPS (set at 500 m in a few cases where GPS location was assigned based on locality name)

verbatimIdentification: taxon name as noted originally

scientificName: scientific name (or Family in a few cases)

vernacularName: common or English name

recordedBy: names of observers (separated by | )

georeferenceRemarks: remarks on georeference

occurrenceID: unique occurrence ID assigned to each taxon (recorded under an observation_id)