DOI: 10.5061/dryad.bvq83bkfm
title: Data for: Body mass mediates spatio-temporal responses of mammals to human frequentation across Italian protected areas

description: Protected areas (PAs) networks are a pivotal tool to fight biodiversity
 loss, yet they often need to balance the mission of nature conservation
 with the socio-economic need of giving opportunity for outdoor recreation.
 Recreation in natural areas is important for human health in an urbanised
 society, but can prompt behavioural modifications in wild animals. Rarely,
 however, have these responses being studied across multiple PAs and using
 standardized methods. We deployed a systematic camera trapping protocol at
 over 200 sites to sample medium and large mammals in four PAs within the
 European Natura 2000 network to assess their spatio-temporal responses to
 human frequentation, proximity to towns, amount of open habitat, and
 topographical variables. By applying multi-species and single-species
 models on the number of diurnal, crepuscular, and nocturnal detections,
 and a multi-species model on nocturnality index, we estimated both
 species-specific and meta-community level effects, finding that increased
 nocturnality appeared the main strategy that the mammal meta-community
 used to cope with human disturbance. However, responses in the diurnal,
 crepuscular, and nocturnal site use were mediated by species’ body mass,
 with larger species exhibiting avoidance of humans and smaller species
 more opportunistic behaviours. Our results show the effectiveness of
 standardised sampling and provide insights for planning the expansion of
 PA networks as foreseen by the Kunming-Montreal biodiversity agreement.
description: In 2020 we surveyed one national park and three
 regional protected areas in northern and central Italy. The study areas
 (Figure 1) include: (1) Parco Naturale Adamello Brenta (Area 1; 46°
 6' N, 10° 56' E), a regional protected area of 620
 km<sup>2</sup> in the central Italian Alps, with highest
 elevation of 3558 m a. s. l., surveyed between the first day of June and
 the last of August. One third of Area 1 is covered by forest, dominated by
 broadleaved species at lower elevation, which are gradually replaced by
 conifers from 1000 to 2000 m a.s.l. Above the tree line the landscape is
 characterized by extensive grasslands and pastures, which precede steep
 slopes and cliffs of dolomite rocks. (2) Parco Naturale Paneveggio Pale di
 San Martino (Area 2; 46° 12' N, 11° 48' E), a regional protected
 area of 197 km<sup>2</sup> in the eastern Italian Alps, with
 the highest peak at 3192 m a.s.l, surveyed between early September and
 late November. This area is characterized by a vast coniferous forest,
 bordering a high and rocky dolomitic massif. (3) Parco Regionale Naturale
 delle Alpi Apuane (Area 3; 44° 4' N, 10° 15' E), located in the
 northern part of Apennines mountain range, central Italy, with the highest
 elevation of 1946 m a.s.l., and surveyed from June to November. This
 mountainous area of 206 km<sup>2</sup> is detached from the
 main Apennines ridge and neighbours the Ligurian Sea coast. Area 3 has a
 typical alpine-like environment, with widespread cliffs and peaks composed
 of limestone and white marble rocks, whose extraction involves many
 quarries intercluded and surrounding the protected area. Vegetation is
 mainly represented by broadleaved woods followed by grasslands above the
 tree line. (4) Parco Nazionale Foreste Casentinesi (Area 4; 44° 4' N,
 10° 15' E), a National Park of 368 km<sup>2</sup> located
 in the centre-northern Apennines and established in 1993, with the highest
 peak reaching 1658 m a.s.l. The park was surveyed between early September
 and late November. The area is characterized by dense forests, in
 particular ancient fir forests, beech woods, and mixed forests, as well as
 a sub-montane vegetation area dominated by oak forests and chestnut
 groves, and pastures at higher elevations. All four areas are popular
 tourist destinations for outdoor recreation and have extensive networks of
 forestry roads, hiking and biking trails, and numerous touristic
 facilities. In areas 1 and 2 forestry roads are accessible by car only for
 residents, hunters and forestry personnel, and in area 3 access to
 forestry roads leading to quarry sites is forbidden . Finally, in area 4
 their use by vehicles is restricted to forestry personnel and, upon
 authorization, to researchers for scientific purposes. In all areas
 mushroom collection is strictly regulated, and in areas 1 and 2 visitors
 are not allowed to leave the trails within the core areas of the park. In
 area 3 there are 11 integral protection zones established to protect
 particularly relevant ecological and geomorphological features, where all
 human activities, other than walking along official trails, are forbidden.
 Area 4 has inside 7 state natural reserves with increasing protection
 levels. Of these latter, the Integral Nature Reserve “Sasso Fratino”,
 which is a strictly protected biogenetic area and part of the UNESCO World
 Heritage, forms the core of the PA, where human access is limited to
 research and scientific activities only.  Data collection
 The sampling design applied in the four areas
 has been used in Area 1 since 2015 and is adapted from the Tropical Ecology
 Assessment and Monitoring Network, a pan-tropical biodiversity monitoring
 programme. Differences
 with the TEAM Network protocol include a larger spacing between camera
 locations to maximize the overall area monitored and to account for the
 larger home range size of the mammals of temperate forests compared to
 species in tropical rainforests. We designed a regular grid with side of
 cells of 2/3 km and placed one camera-trap site per cell, evenly spaced
 and positioned to cover the whole altitudinal gradient (Figure 1). In
 areas 1, 2, and 4 the number of sampling sites was 60, and 44 in Area 3,
 due to the smaller spatial extent of this study area. Camera traps were
 located in the field as close as possible to the centroid of the cells, 
 based on accessibility and on the presence of a trail or forestry road.
 Cameras were installed on trees at about 60 cm above the ground and at a
 distance of 3-5 meters from the target trail or road. For all areas, baits
 were not used, and cameras stayed active in the field for a minimum of 30
 consecutive days. For this study, we used heat-in-motion triggered cameras
 of different brands: Reconyx (Holmen, WI, USA), Browning (Birmingham, AL,
 USA;), UWAY Outdoor Products (Norcross, GA, USA), Bushnell Outdoor
 Products (Overland Park, KA, USA), Boly Inc. (Santa Clara, CA, USA) and
 Apeman (Shenzhen, China). The pictures collected were classified at the
 species level by the authors through the software
 Wild.ID. The only
 exception refers to the sympatric species <em>Martes
 foina</em> and <em>Martes martes</em>, which were
 classified at the genus level only, due to the impossibility to
 distinguish them with certainty from camera trap detections. Since the
 sampling sites were positioned on trails and roads, our inference is
 generally related to wild mammals’ and humans’ use of these features only,
 and not of the whole study area (see Discussion). For the present study,
 trail-based sampling was necessary to monitor both wildlife and human site
 use, and thus to evaluate the potential consequences of human passage on
 wild mammals.
description: All data have been created through R programming
 environment.
description: This README file was generated on 2024-02-28 by Marco Salvatori. GENERAL
 INFORMATION 1. Title of Dataset: Body mass mediates responses of mammals
 to human frequentation across Italian protected areas 2. Author
 Information A. Principal Investigator Contact Information Name: Marco
 Salvatori Institution: University of Firenze, Dipartimento di Biologia
 Address: via Madonna del Piano 6, Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy Email:
 [marco.salvatori@unifi.it](mailto:marco.salvatori@unifi.it) B. Associate
 or Co-investigator Contact Information Name: Ilaria Greco Institution:
 University of Firenze, Dipartimento di Biologia Address: via Madonna del
 Piano 6, Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy Email:
 [ilaria.greco@unifi.it](mailto:ilaria.greco@unifi.it) 3. Date of data
 collection (single date, range, approximate date): 2020 4. Geographic
 location of data collection: Parco Naturale Adamello Brenta, Parco
 Naturale Paneveggio Pale di San Martino, Parco Regionale delle Alpi
 Apuane, PArco NAzionale delle foreste Casentinesi (Italy) 5. Information
 about funding sources that supported the collection of the data:
 University of Firenze, Parco Nazionale Foreste Casentinesi, MUSE - Museo
 delle Scienze SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION 1. Licenses/restrictions placed
 on the data: CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain 2. Links to
 publications that cite or use the data: Salvatori, M., Greco, I. et al.
 (in press) Body mass mediates responses of mammals to human frequentation
 across Italian protected areas, Proceedings of the Royal Society B -
 Biological Sciences 1. Links to other publicly accessible locations of the
 data: None 2. Links/relationships to ancillary data sets: None 3. Was data
 derived from another source? No A. If yes, list source(s): NA 4.
 Recommended citation for this dataset: Salvatori, M., Greco, I. et al. (in
 press) Data from: Body mass mediates responses of mammals to human
 frequentation across Italian protected areas, Proceedings of the Royal
 Society B - Biological Sciences DATA & FILE OVERVIEW 1. File List: A)
 Salvatori_et_al_2024_data.csv 1. Relationship between files, if important:
 None 2. Additional related data collected that was not included in the
 current data package: None 3. Are there multiple versions of the dataset?
 No A. If yes, name of file(s) that was updated: NA i. Why was the file
 updated? NA ii. When was the file updated? NA
 \#########################################################################
 DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: Salvatori_et_al_2024_data.csv 1. Number of
 variables: 20 2. Number of cases/rows: 6633 3. Variable List: * site:
 unique numeric identifier of the 204 camera-trapping sites * area.x: study
 area identifier of the four study areas (protected areas) * area.y: study
 area identifier as acronym of the protected area * species: scientific
 name of the species * events: number of camera trapping events, i.e. main
 response variable * type: event type based on time of the day: diurnal,
 crepuscular or nocturnal * days: number of sampling days, namely effort
 information * humans_orig: covariate for the trapping rate of humans *
 towns_orig: covariate for the distance from the closest human settlement *
 elevation_orig: covariate for the elevation * slope_orig: covariate for
 the terrain slope * open_habitat: covariate for the amount of open habitat
 in a 1 km buffer * humans: covariate for the trapping rate of humans,
 scaled subtracting its mean and dividing by its standard deviation *
 towns: covariate for the distance from the closest human settlement,
 scaled subtracting its mean and dividing by its standard deviation * elev:
 covariate for the elevation, scaled subtracting its mean and dividing by
 its standard deviation * slope: covariate for the terrain slope, scaled
 subtracting its mean and dividing by its standard deviation * open:
 covariate for the amount of open habitat in a 1 km buffer, scaled
 subtracting its mean and dividing by its standard deviation * mass: log of
 the species body mass, scaled subtracting its mean and dividing by its
 standard deviation * common: common name of the species in English *
 nocturnality: nocturnality index 4. Missing data codes: None 5.
 Specialized formats or other abbreviations used: None
 \#########################################################################