DOI: 10.5061/dryad.4f4qrfjmp
title: Assessing the potential of camera traps for estimating activity pattern compared to collar-mounted activity sensors: A case study on Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in South-Eastern Norway

description: The diel activity patterns of animals convey information about physiology,
 ecological niches and animal behaviour relevant for both applied
 conservation and more theoretical research. However, these patterns are
 challenging to study in the field. The current gold-standard approach to
 quantify the movements and activity patterns of medium to large wildlife
 species is to use Global Positioning Systems (GPS) collars equipped with
 activity sensors (e.g., accelerometers). A more recent approach consists
 of inferring activity patterns from the time-stamped pictures of wildlife
 obtained from the camera traps now routinely used in wildlife monitoring
 projects. However, few studies have attempted to validate estimates of
 activity patterns obtained from camera traps against those obtained from
 activity sensors. In this study, we compared the diel activity pattern of
 the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx inferred from detections by a network of over
 300 camera traps active between 2010 and 2020, to activity patterns
 obtained from 18 GPS-collared lynx (8 females, 10 males) equipped with
 2-axis accelerometer sensors, in the same area of southern Norway. Our
 results suggest that camera traps can be used to estimate diel activity
 curves that are comparable to those obtained from accelerometers. In our
 study 75 detections were sufficient to approximate the diel activity
 pattern obtained from accelerometer. Subsampling indicated that a low
 number of detections results in a coarser approximation of the diel
 activity pattern.
description: # Assessing the potential of camera traps for estimating activity pattern
 compared to collar-mounted activity sensors: a case study on Eurasian lynx
 Lynx lynx in south-eastern Norway - Datasets We have submitted our camera
 traps dataset (CameraTrapsData.Rdata) and accelerometer dataset
 (AccelerometerData.Rdata). Camera trap detections of lynx were obtained
 from 327 camera traps (Reconyx HC500 HC600, PC850, PC900 & HP2X,
 Holmen, Wisconsin, USA) distributed in the study area as part of the
 SCANDCAM project
 ([https://viltkamera.nina.no/](https://viltkamera.nina.no/)). Data used in
 this study resulted from 11 years of monitoring, from November 2010 to
 December 2020, and a total of 2292 independent detections of lynx.
 Accelerometer data were obtained from 18 lynx (8 females and 10 males)
 equipped with GPS collars that also contained 2-axis accelerometers (GPS
 plus mini, Vectronic Aerospace GmbH, Berlin, Germany) between 2008 and
 2015 as part of the SCANDLYNX project
 ([http://scandlynx.nina.no](http://scandlynx.nina.no)). Overall, data from
 the accelerometers covered a total of 5496 lynx days across an 8-year
 period, from 2008 to 2015, resulting in ~ 1.5 million 5-minutes recordings
 of activity. ## Description of the datasets Camera Traps Dataset *
 STUDYAREA: county and/or regional name where the camera trap was set * X:
 first two digits of the geographical x-coordinates (precise location data
 have been omitted as it is considered sensitive data) * Y: first two
 digits of the geographical y-coordinates (precise location data have been
 omitted as it is considered sensitive data) * DateTime: date and time of
 each detection of lynx * HoursofLight: number of hours of light (daylight)
 calculated for each detection, based on the date of the detection and the
 geographical coordinates of the location of the camera trap Accelerometer
 Dataset * No: number of observation * CollarID: identification number of
 the GPS collar * ActivityX: recorded values of activity for the X axis *
 ActivityY: recorded values of activity for the Y axis * AnimalID:
 identification code for each individual * datetime: date and time of each
 activity value recorded * HoursofLight: number of hours of light
 (daylight) calculated for each activity value recorded, based on the date
 of the observation and the geographical coordinates of the location of the
 initial lynx capture ## Information sources Camera Traps Dataset was
 derived from the following source: * SCANDCAM project
 ([https://viltkamera.nina.no/](https://viltkamera.nina.no/)) Accelerometer
 Dataset was derived from the following source: * SCANDLYNX project
 ([http://scandlynx.nina.no](http://scandlynx.nina.no))