DOI: 10.25338/b82050
title: Wildlife documented at nine-banded armadillo burrows in Arkansas

description: The Nine-banded Armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) is a widespread burrowing
 species with an expanding geographic range across the southeastern and
 midwestern United States. Armadillos dig numerous, large burrows within
 their home ranges and these burrows are likely used by a diverse suite of
 wildlife species as has been reported for other burrowing ecosystem
 engineers such as Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus), Desert Tortoises
 (Gopherus agassizi), and Black-tailed Prairie Dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus).
 We used motion-triggered game cameras at 35 armadillo burrows in 4
 ecoregions of Arkansas and documented 19 species of mammals, 4 species of
 reptile, 1 species of amphibian, and 40 species of bird interacting with
 burrows. Bobcat (Lynx rufus), Coyote (Canis latrans), Eastern Cottontail
 (Sylvilagus floridanus), Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), Gray
 Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), Northern Raccoon (Procyon lotor),
 Virginia Opossum (Didelphis virginiana), and unidentified rodents (mice
 and rats) were documented using burrows in all four ecoregions. We
 documented wildlife hunting, seeking shelter, rearing young in, and taking
 over and modifying armadillo burrows. The rate of use was highest in the
 Mississippi Alluvial Valley, a landscape dominated by agriculture, where
 natural refugia may be limited and rodents are abundant. Armadillo burrows
 are clearly visited and used by numerous wildlife species to fulfill
 various life stage requirements and this list will likely expand if more
 attention is devoted to understanding the role of armadillos burrows.
 Armadillos are important ecosystem engineers, and their ecological role
 warrants more investigation and attention as opposed to only being viewed
 and managed as agricultural and garden pests.
description: Beginning in March 2020, we located burrows by walking the sites
 and opportunistically encountering burrows. We selected burrows where we
 felt cameras would not attract attention from hikers or recreators and
 where the field of view of the burrow was relatively unobstructed by
 vegetation. At selected burrows we set motion-triggered wildlife cameras.
 We used several types of cameras for this study (Reconyx Microfire,
 Bushnell HD Aggressor, Bushnell Core, and Browning Strike Force HD). All
 cameras were set to take a burst of 3 photos each time they were triggered
 and to have a reset period between 0 and 8 seconds (depending on the
 available options of the camera model) before triggering again. Cameras
 were placed on nearby trees or tripods placed between 2 and 3 m from the
 burrow entrance. Cameras were set approximately 50-75 cm off the ground
 and angled towards the burrow entrance to ensure we captured all wildlife
 interacting with the burrows. The amount of time that individual cameras
 were left in place varied from 1 month to slightly over a year due to
 various factors including camera failures, flooding, and making
 accommodations to landowners. All cameras were removed from the field by
 June 2021. Data was processed using Timelapse 2.0 to
 review all photographs and assign species ID to each wildlife trigger. We
 combined all photographs taken within a 5 min period as a single detection
 to reduce the likelihood of double-counting individuals. For each wildlife
 detection we identified the species present, the number of individuals
 visible, and we recorded which part of the burrow an animal interacted
 with including passing by (no interaction with burrow), apron (animal
 interacting with the mounded sand, bare ground, or leaf litter piled in
 front of the burrow), entrance (animals sniffing, foraging, or inspecting
 the opening to the burrow), or interior (animals that moved beyond the
 entrance of a burrow to enter, exit, or investigate the tunnel of the
 burrow). We also extracted the date and time of all interactions with
 burrows. While we attempted to identify each trigger to the species level,
 for most rodents we categorized them simply as “mice” or “rats”. For all
 other vertebrates, we excluded detections where we were unable to identify
 the species.
description: For additional details about this dataset, please use the
 following ReadMe.txt file.