Long-term monitoring of animal association patterns with desert shrubs at Panoche Hills Ecological Reserve, California pre and post removal

40 shrubs were selected for use in the shrub removal experiment that had scat present in 2013 and 2014. Of these 40 shrubs, 20 were selected as controls and 20 were selected as removal shrubs to be removed in 2015. Cameras were set up in pairs at 14 shrub locations, 7 controls and 7 to-be removed. A total of 28 cameras were deployed in pairs shrub-open. Cameras were deployed on May 15. One camera malfunctioned during the experiment and was removed such that 27 cameras remained at the end of the experiment. Open cameras paired with control shrubs monitored control open locations. Open cameras paired with a removal shrub monitored areas where a mimic would be constructed. Cameras were deployed until June 30 and were routinely checked for battery life and memory storage. When cameras needed batteries changed or pictures were removed from memory cards they were immediately re-deployed (battery changes and picture downloads occurred in-field). Cameras were mounted on 20-30cm plastic tent pegs. Pictures were processed for presence of animals. Any picture with any animal was retained and information including, temperature, date, moon-phase, species, number of pictures and visitation rate were recorded. Pictures without animals were discarded.