A systematic review of global road ecology camera trap studies that monitored animals’ use of wildlife crossings in road-fragmented landscapes

Much research has emphasised the importance of incorporating wildlife crossing-structures in the design of road networks to facilitate connectivity of wildlife crossings in road-fragmented landscapes. Although camera traps have been effective in monitoring wildlife crossing structures, limited studies explore camera trap protocol to monitor wildlife use of crossing structures, particularly in Africa. Our study reviewed and assessed camera trap peer-reviewed research that monitored the use of crossing-structures by wildlife to navigate landscapes fragmented by roads. We found 70 camera trap peer-reviewed publications from 2001 to 2022 that monitored wildlife use of crossing-structures in landscapes intersected by roads, and these were from 22 countries and six continents. The included peer-reviewed studies varied significantly globally, with geographical trends indicating that most studies were conducted in North America. However, the methods used varied considerably between studies, esp..., We conducted a  systematic literature search and review of peer-reviewed journal articles between 1 July and 1 September 2023 using Google Scholar (https://scholar.google.co.za/) and Semantic Scholar databases with the programme Publish or Perish (Harzing, 2022). The review comprised only peer-reviewed literature spanning the years 2001 to 2022 that examined the use of camera traps as a tool to assess the efficacy of wildlife crossing-structures as a mitigation strategy for restoring landscape connectivity and reducing wildlife-road-mortality. The search string used the following words to identify each publication: camera traps, wildlife crossings, cameras underneath underpasses, cameras under culverts, undercrossings, overcrossings, canopy bridges, crossing corridors, and connectivity. We used a Microsoft Excel© spreadsheet to collate the data from each publication., , This README file was generated on 2024-03-09 by Colleen T.Downs.

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. Title of Dataset: A systematic review of global road ecology camera trap studies that monitored animals? use of wildlife crossings in road-fragmented landscapes

2. Author Information
A. Principal Investigator Contact Information
Name: Thabo I Hlatshwayo
Institution: University of KwaZulu-Natal
Address: Pietermaritzburg, KZN ZA
Email: [[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

B. Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information
Name: Colleen T. Downs
Institution: University of KwaZulu-Natal
Address: Pietermaritzburg, KZN ZA
Email:[[e-mail]](mailto:[e-mail])

3. Date of data collection (single date, range, approximate date): 1 July and 1 September 2023

4. Geographic location of data collection: University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

5. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: Uni...