DOI: 10.5061/dryad.69p8cz9dt
title: Artificial supplementary food influences hedgehog occupancy and activity patterns more than predator presence or natural food availability

description: Supplementary feeding for declining hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus)
 populations is popular in Great Britain and has been suggested as an
 important factor in explaining higher densities in urban areas compared
 with rural ones. Occupancy modelling was used to test whether spatial
 variation in supplementary feeding, natural food or predator presence best
 explained patterns of hedgehog occupancy and activity across a rural urban
 gradient. Supplementary food had a strong effect on hedgehog occupancy and
 detection, with all supplementary feeding sites recording hedgehog
 presence. Sites with supplementary feeding also detected hedgehogs earlier
 in the evening and had different patterns of diel activity to those sites
 without. Natural food availability and predators showed a negative
 relationship with hedgehog occupancy. Natural prey availability and the
 presence of predators was relatively higher in rural areas and had a
 negative relationship with hedgehog occupancy. Although the strength of
 these relationships was weak, they suggest that local hedgehog occupancy
 and activity behaviour is greatly influenced by access to artificial
 supplementary feeding in urban areas. This is the first study to show the
 importance of supplementary feeding as a covariate of hedgehog occupancy
 in relation to natural food availability and we recommend that future
 studies quantify supplementary feeding in population and distribution
 studies of urban mammals.
description: # Artificial supplementary food influences hedgehog occupancy and activity
 patterns more than predator presence or natural food availability Dataset
 DOI: [10.5061/dryad.69p8cz9dt](10.5061/dryad.69p8cz9dt) ## Description of
 the data and file structure Data associated with WLB-2025-01500 All data
 and code files used for analysis can be found in the following files: 1.
 "Hedgehog_SuppFeed_Occu25_FINAL.R"  which is the R script to run
 the Occupancy analysis. 2. "Hedgehog_Covariates25.csv" which is
 the spreadsheet containing the covariates used in occupancy analysis. The
 covariates are as follows: i) **Site_ID** = Numeric site location
 identifier. ii) **Carabid** = Count of individual Carabid beetles trapped
 in pitfall traps. iii) **Pitfall_Abund** = Count of pitfall trap abundance
 of ground living terrestrial invertebrates. iv) **Pitfall_Rich** = Count
 of pitfall trap invertebrate family richness. v) **Pitfall_Shannons** =
 Pitfall index of Shannon's diversity vi) **Z_Carabid** = Z-score of
 individual Carabid beetles trapped in pitfall traps.
 vii)  **Z_Pitfall_Abund** = Z-score of the count of pitfall trap abundance
 of ground living terrestrial invertebrates. viii) **Z_Pitfall_Rich** =
 Z-score of count of pitfall trap invertebrate family richness. ix)
 **Z_Pitfall_Shannons** = Z-score of the pitfall index of Shannon's
 diversity x) **Food** = Binary covariate relating to whether supplementary
 food was provided at the site, where 0 = no food, and 1 = food provided. 
 xi) **Fox** = Binary covariate relating to whether a fox (Vulpes vulpes)
 was detected at the site, where 0 = no fox detection, and 1 = fox
 detected.. xii) **Badger** = Binary covariate relating to whether a badger
 (*Meles meles*) was detected at the site, where 0 = no badger detected and
 1 = badger detected.  xiii) **Urban** = Binary covariate relating to
 whether the site was located on a rural location (0) or urban (1). xiv)
 **Treat**  = is short for **Treatment,** which is categorical, and based
 on whether the site was in a rural location without **Food** (0), an
 **Urban** location without **Food** (1) and an **Urban** location with
 **Food** (2). 3. "hedgehog_detection.csv" which shows the camera
 trap session in the columns, and the detection of hedgehogs in the rows.
 Trapping sessions (**SO**) are listed sequentially from **SO1** (the first
 trapping session) to **SO9** (the 9th and final trapping session).
 Hedgehog detections are represented in the columns as being 1 = hedgehog
 detected in that trapping session, and 0 = no hedgehogs detected in that
 trapping session. Rows of data correspond to the **Site_ID** in
 the "Hedgehog_Covariates25.csv" spreadsheet. 4.
 "hog_solar_time_activity25.R" which is the R script to run the
 analysis.  5. "STime_data_Hedgehog_RD.csv" which contains the
 following row headings used to estimate hedgehog diel activity patterns:
 i) **Site_ID** = Numeric site location identifier. ii) **SITE NAME** =
 Name of the site. iii) **SURVEY NIGHT** = Sequential survey night number,
 with 1 being the first night surveyed, 2 being the second and so forth.
 iv) **DATE** = Date of hedgehog detection event given in DAY/MONTH/YEAR
 numerical format. v) **TIME** = Time of hedgehog detection event given in
 HOUR:MINUTE:SECOND numerical format. vi) **TIME_CONCAT** = Stands for the
 concatenation of the **DATE** and **TIME** columns. vii) **GENERAL_TIME**
 = Converts **TIME** into a single numeric value for analysis.  viii)
 **SPECIES** = Species detected - in this case, hedgehog (*Erinaceus
 europaeus*). ix) **Food** = Categorical covariate relating to whether
 supplementary food was provided at the site, where 0 = no food, and 1 =
 food provided.  x) **Urban** = Categorical covariate relating to whether
 the site was located on a rural location (0) or urban (1). xi) **Treat** 
 = is short for **Treatment,** which is categorical, and based on whether
 the site was in a rural location without **Food** (0), an **Urban**
 location without **Food** (1) and an **Urban** location with **Food** (2).
 ## Code/software Two types of analysis were conducted in R: 1. Occupancy
 analysis = "Hedgehog_SuppFeed_Occu24.R" uses two spreadsheets
 containing the raw data: 1. "Hedgehog_detection.csv" and 2.
 "Hedgehog_Covariates.csv". 2. Diel activity analysis comprises
 code "hog_*solartime_activity.R" and runs the data
 "STimedata*_Hedgehog_RD.csv" Both R scripts are annotated with #
 comments, detailing what each step in the code is doing and what the
 interpretation of the output is. Each script also contains details of the
 packages used to run the analysis.  Code is also give to show have the
 figures were created, so that these can be duplicated. #### Access
 information All data was collected by the authors.