DOI: 10.5061/dryad.18931zd8w
title: I'm not falling for that: Boldness and trappability of small mammals decline in urban reserves

description: We aimed to analyse the influence of urbanisation and environmental
 variables (i.e., moonlight and temperature) on the activity levels,
 boldness, and trappability of small mammals. We live-trapped small mammals
 in five urban reserves, each paired with a natural forest counterpart
 within Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, New South Wales, Australia. We
 used Elliot traps paired with camera traps to observe the activity,
 boldness, and trappability of small mammals. This dataset includes all the
 tagged camera-trap captures, the curated CSV files obtained from the
 images, as well as the data obtained from the captures in the Elliot
 traps. We found that the activity of small mammals did not differ between
 the forest and urban reserve sites. However, we found that the most active
 species in urban reserves was the exotic Rattus rattus, whereas R.
 fuscipes was the most active species in forest sites. We found that the
 small mammals in the urban reserves were less bold and had lower
 trappability than their forest counterparts. This could be explained by
 the bait type, and/or traits of the small mammal species (mostly R.
 rattus) that were dominant in the urban reserves. Environmental variables
 (moonlight and temperature) did not vary substantially over the study
 period and had no significant influence on small mammal activity or
 trappability. This dataset could be reused in small mammal behavioural
 studies.
description: # I'm not falling for that: Boldness and trappability of small
 mammals decline in urban reserves Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.18931zd8w](10.5061/dryad.18931zd8w) ## Description of the
 data and file structure ### File: tagged.zip Description: Zip folder of
 the camera trapping stations. Each folder contains pictures tagged in
 Digikamversion 8.5.0 ([https://www.digikam.org](https://www.digikam.org))
 with the variables used in the study. Folders: * K-1-A1 to U-5-E2-2 are
 IDs of the camera trapping stations. * Folder K-5-A10-NW was included
 intentionally to depict the only camera trapping station with a technical
 failure. ### File: 20250208_visit_interaction_pa_v2.csv Description: Data
 on visits and interactions of small mammals with Elliot traps Variables *
 site_type: forest vs urban reserves * species: small mammal species
 identified in the camera traps * species_origin: wether the small mammal
 species is native or exotic  * moonlight_percentage: percentage of
 moonlight on the sampling night of the camera trap capture as reported in
 [https://moonphases.org](https://moonphases.org)  * temperature:
 Temperature value in centigrades obtained from the cameras Browning® trail
 * season: spring vs autumn * visit_ID: Identifier of the visit that
 contains the site identifier, the camera trapping station, the code for
 the small mammal caotured, the sampling night and the consecutive number
 of the visits.  * interaction_pa: Presence or absence of interaction of
 the small mammals with the Elliot traps. * time_interaction: Length of the
 interaction in seconds. * capture_pa: presence of absence of capture of
 small mammal in the observed Elliot trap. ### File:
 20250127_visitation_rate_species.csv Description: Data on visitation rate
 of small mammals to Elliot trap stations per species Variables * Site:
 site identifier. * site_type: forest vs urban reserves * species: small
 mammal species identified in the camera traps * n: number of captures per
 sites * sampling_effort: number of sampling nights per site, accounting
 for all five camera trap stations. * visitation_rate:  n divided by
 sampling effort ### File: 20250121_camera_sampling_effort_persite.csv
 Description: Data on camera trapping effort per sampling site Variables *
 site: site identifier * sampling_effort: number of sampling nights per
 site, accounting for all five camera trap stations. ### File:
 20250706_camera_trapping_sm_full_v2.csv Description: Data on camera
 trapping effort per sampling site Variables * order_ID: Identifier to
 order the data. * site_type: forest vs urban reserves * site: site
 identifier * station: camera trapping station identifier * genus: genus of
 the small mammal identified in the camera trap picture * species: small
 mammal species identified in the camera trap picture * species_origin *
 species_origin: whether the small mammal species is native or exotic *
 species_group: group of small mammal of the species identified based on
 mammal size. * season: spring vs autumn * DateTimeOriginal: Date and time
 of the camera trap capture. * Date: Date of the camera trap capture. *
 Time: Time of the camera trap capture. * delta.time.secs: Difference in
 seconds with the first capture of the species in each camera trap station.
 * delta.time.mins: Difference in minutes with the first capture of the
 species in each camera trap station. * delta.time.hours: Difference in
 hours with the first capture of the species in each camera trap station. *
 delta.time.days: Difference in days with the first capture of the species
 in each camera trap station. * independent_capture: whether the species
 capture is independent from the previous visit of the species. *
 moonlight_percentage: percentage of moonlight on the sampling night of the
 camera trap capture as reported in
 [https://moonphases.org](https://moonphases.org)  * temperature:
 Temperature value in centigrades obtained from the cameras Browning® trail
 * interaction_seconds: Length of the interaction in seconds. *
 interaction_pa: Presence or absence of interaction of the small mammals
 with the Elliot traps. * behaviour: category of the behaviour of the small
 mammal captured in the camera trap station * behaviour_simple: category of
 the behaviour of the small mammal captured in the camera trap station
 simplified * bold_behaviour: whether the behaviour of the small mammal
 towards the Elliot trap is bold or shy * sp_key: small mammal species code
 * trap_night: consecutive trap night on the trapping station *
 visit_n: consecutive visit to the trapping station * visit_ID: Identifier
 of the visit that contains the site identifier, the camera trapping
 station, the code for the small mammal caotured, the sampling night and
 the consecutive number of the visits.  * trap_interaction: ordination of
 the camera trap visit on consecutive captures. * n_individuals: number of
 individuals observed in the camera trap capture. *
 intraspecific_behaviour: description of the intraspecific behaviour when
 there are two individuals in the trapping station. * trap_state: Elliot
 trap open or closed * individual_ID: identity of the captured individual
 when identified in the Elliot trap. * sex: sex of the captured individual.
 ### File: 20250117_small_mammal_trapping.csv Description: Data on Elliot
 trap captures of small mammals Variables * site_type: forest vs urban
 reserves * site: site identifier * individual: identifier of the captured
 individual * date: date of the capture * season: spring vs autumn *
 trap_ID: Grid ID of the Elliot trap where the small mammal was captured *
 weight: weight of the small mammal captured in the Elliot trap *
 body_lenght: body length of the small mammal captured in the Elliot trap *
 sex: sex of the small mammal captured in the Elliot trap * stage: stage of
 the small mammal captured in the Elliot trap * genus: genus of the small
 mammal captured in the Elliot trap * species: species of the small mammal
 captured in the Elliot trap * recapture: whether the individual was
 recaptured * camera_capture: whether the capture was recorded in a camera
 trap ### File: 20250127_trap_success_species.csv Description: Data on trap
 success on the camera traps Variables * site: site identifier * site_type:
 forest vs urban reserves * species: small mammal species identified in the
 camera traps * n: number of captures per species * trap_success: number of
 captures divided by the sampling effort of the camera traps in the
 sampling site ## Code/software All data analyses where perfomed in RStudio
 using the R version 4.4.1. The code was developed by Margarita
 Gil-Fernandez, and it has been attached under the
 name 20250117_small_mammal_behaviour_v2.R. For the best use of the code,
 it is recommended to set two sampling directories for the extraction of
 metadata from the pictures, one for the tagged pictures. If the user wants
 to rename the pictures, these can be renamed into a different folder. The
 remaining analyses can be run by placing all the provided csv files into
 one single folder, which would serve as the main working directory.