Long-term monitoring of animal association patterns with desert shrubs at Panoche Hills Ecological Reserve, California pre and post removal, in 2015

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.

本研究选取40株2013年及2014年均存在动物粪便痕迹的灌木，用于开展灌木移除实验。其中20株设为对照组，剩余20株作为移除组，将于2015年实施移除操作。在14处灌木监测点位成对布设相机，其中7处为对照点位，7处为待移除灌木点位，总计布设28台成对相机以覆盖灌丛开放区域。相机于5月15日完成布设。实验期间有1台相机发生故障并被移除，最终实验结束时剩余27台有效相机。与对照灌木配对布设的相机，用于监测对照灌丛的开放区域；与待移除灌木配对布设的相机，则用于监测灌木移除后的模拟区域。相机监测周期至6月30日，期间定期检查电池电量与存储卡存储空间。若相机需更换电池或导出存储卡内的照片，工作人员将在野外现场完成操作后立即重新布设相机。相机通过20至30厘米的塑料帐篷地钉进行固定。对拍摄获取的照片开展动物存在性甄别分析：所有包含动物个体的照片均予以保留，并记录环境温度、拍摄日期、月相、动物物种、照片张数以及动物访问频次等相关信息；无动物的照片则直接舍弃。