DOI: 10.5061/dryad.qz612jmfk
title: Wildlife activity timing in shrub-invaded and shrub-removed oak-hickory forest at Fish Lake Environmental Education Center (Eastern Michigan University; Lapeer County, Michigan, USA)

description: Wildlife activity timing reflects an individual animal’s need to balance
 activities that improve fitness with timing that minimizes risk of
 exposure to extreme climatic conditions, predation risk, and other threats
 to survival and growth.  Habitat structure, such as the type or
 amount of vegetative cover, can have a direct effect on the timing and
 amount of wildlife activity and these habitat-mediated differences in
 animal activity can translate to shifts in important species interactions
 (e.g., predator-prey interactions, seed predation, and secondary seed
 dispersal).  Invasive shrubs (e.g., Amur Honeysuckle, Autumn
 Olive, and Common Buckthorn) significantly alter habitat structure and
 directly affect overall activity and the timing of wildlife activity in
 upper Midwest United States forests.  Here, we provide trail
 camera data records of wildlife activity timing from fourteen 20 × 20m
 oak-hickory forest plots located at the Fish Lake Environmental Education
 Center (Lapeer, Michigan, USA); we mechanically removed and chemically
 treated Autumn Olive and Amur’s Honeysuckle from seven of the plots and
 seven plots remained as shrub-invaded reference plots.  Data were
 recorded in two consecutive fall sessions (2019 & 2020), and one
 Summer Session (2020); see methods for specific windows of camera
 recording durations.  These animal activity data have multiple
 uses that range from the synthesis of primary research to environmental
 education. With specific focus on environmental education, these data are
 particularly useful in exploring concepts in wildlife management (e.g.,
 the influence of habitat structure on cervid activity), developing spatial
 maps of activity using a local network of cameras, and exploring
 management of time and date formatted data in statistical programs (e.g.,
 R, JMP, Minitab, Excel) to efficiently summarize trends over time.
description: <i>Study Sites and
 Invasive Shrub Removal</i> All 14 sites were located at Fish
 Lake Environmental Education Center (Eastern Michigan University; Lapeer
 County, Michigan).  In June 2018, seven of the 20 × 20m plots were cleared
 of Autumn Olive and Amur Honeysuckle while the remaining seven plots were
 left invaded as reference plots.  Across all sites, pre-removal invasive
 shrub stem density ranged from 0.64-2.04 stems/m<sup>2</sup>;
 please contact Brian Connolly for more information on site
 characteristics. More site-specific details will follow in subsequent
 published data and manuscripts, but we will gladly provide more details
 sooner if data users are interested.  <i>Equipment</i>,
 <i>Data Collection, and Intervals</i>: To record animal activity, trail
 cameras (Bushnell Trophy Trail Camera 20MP [HD_119717CW]) were loaded with
 32 GB memory cards (SanDisk 32 GB Ultra SD Memory Card) and secured at
 0.5-0.75m height above the ground on a tree located roughly in the center
 of each plot. Data collection durations, defined below, were targeted to
 extent for &gt;1 month during each sampling interval to capture
 differences in wildlife activity during different lunar phases. Both fall
 sessions exceeded one month, but logistical constraints limited summer
 2020 sampling to a three-week duration. Each camera had identical
 parameters for triggering mechanisms and image recording.  Each camera was
 set to “High” trigger sensitivity and each camera was set to take three
 consecutive photos once triggered.   <i>Data
 Processing</i> At the completion of each image
 capture duration, images were downloaded and the animal activity was
 indexed on a spreadsheet by a single observer.  A list of the types and
 categories of data we collected are listed below in the “Usage Notes”
 section. We adopted the following rules regarding data entry:
 An activity observation entry for an animal was only
 permitted if the animal was visible within the image frame and
 identifiable to the level of genus or more specific.
 Activity observation entries of any unique wildlife species must
 be separated by at least 10 minutes from the last previous entry for that
 animal.  This data management step helped introduce a small measure of
 independence between each unique observation. Species
 names were ascribed to wildlife images based on known species occurrence
 ranges in this region of Michigan and live-trapping efforts conducted on
 these sites. Images of birds were not included
 in this data set and observations were limited to mammalian wildlife
 activity. <i>Data collection and
 update policy</i> Data collection of animal
 activity at these sites may occur intermittently as a function of
 student-led research projects and faculty-led research inquiries. Data on
 animal activity on these plots will be updated as possible.
description: <i>Sampling
 periods</i>: <b>2018</b>:   Camera traps were deployed at seven sites (four invasive shrub removed sites and three invasive shrub intact sites).  Deployment dates ranged from 31 July 2018 to 21 September 2018.  Camera trap recording was completed on 20 October 2018.  One camera (Dorm Invaded) malfunctioned and images were only recorded until 26 August 2018. <b>2019</b>:   Cameras were deployed at thirteen sites (seven invasive shrub removed sites and six invasive shrub control sites).  Deployment dates ranged from 25 October 2019 to 1 November 2019.  Camera trap recording was completed on 6 December 2019. <b>2020</b>:   Cameras were deployed for two sessions in 2020.  During the <i>first 2020 session</i> cameras were deployed at twelve sites (six invasive shrub removed sites and six invasive shrub control sites).  All cameras during this session were deployed on 21 July 2020 and were collected on 11 August 2020. During the <i>second 2020 session</i> cameras were deployed at twelve sites (six invasive shrub removed sites and six invasive shrub control sites).  Two cameras malfunctioned during this period (Dorm Invaded & Bearings Cleared).  All cameras during this session were deployed on 11 October 2020 and collected on 14 November 2020. Column header names and variable description: “Image_numb”: Unique photo identifier associated with this observation “site_name”: Unique site names that identify each plot “inv_trt”: Invasive shrub treatment level. “Invaded” = plot did not have shrubs removed in summer 2018. “Cleared”=plot did have invasive shrubs removed in Summer 2018. “Date”: The date the observation was made “Season”: The season (e.g., “Summer”, “Fall”) the image was recorded “Year”: The combined year an image was recorded “Season_year”: The combined season and year an image was recorded. “Time”: The time of day an animal was active “Time_deci”: The time of day an animal was active transformed to a proportional scale where 12:00 a.m. is equal to 0.0 and 11:59 is equal to 1.0. For example, 12:00:00 p.m. would be equal to 0.5. “Time_24deci”: The time of day an animal was active transformed so that hours of observation time are recorded as whole numbers (range: 0-23) and the minutes and second of an observation are recorded as their corresponding proportion of an hour (range: .00-.99).  For example, the time “2:06:16” would equal “2.1544”. “date_and_time”: The untransformed combined record of date and time of animal observation. “Temp”: Recorded by the camera, the temperature (in degrees Celsius) at the time the image of the animal was taken. “Animal_ID_common”: The common name of the animal observed in the image. “Animal_ID_scientific”: The scientific name of the animal observed in the image. “snow”: Whether or not snow is present in the photo.  “0” = no snow is present in the image. “1” = there is snow present in the image. “Number_of _Animals”: The number of animals of the identified species present in an image.