DOI: 10.5061/dryad.5tb2rbp9d
title: Land cover preferences and spatiotemporal associations of ungulates within a Scottish mammal community

description: In the degraded and modified environment of the Scottish Highlands, novel
 ungulate communities have arisen following local extinctions,
 reintroductions, and the introduction of non-native species. An
 understanding of the dynamics and interactions within these unique mammal
 communities is important as many of these mammals represent keystone
 species with disproportionate impacts on the environment. Using a camera
 trap survey, we investigated land cover preferences and spatiotemporal
 interactions within a Scottish ungulate community: the sika deer (Cervus
 nippon), the roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), the red deer (Cervus
 elaphus), and the wild boar (Sus scrofa). We used generalised linear
 models to assess land cover preferences and the effect of human
 disturbance; spatiotemporal interactions were characterised using time
 interval modelling. We found sika deer and roe deer preferred coniferous
 plantations and grasslands, with sika deer additionally preferring
 woodland. For red deer, we found a slight preference for wetland over
 woodland; however, the explained variance was low. Finally, wild boar
 preferred grassland and woodland and avoided coniferous plantations,
 heathland, and shrubland. Contrary to our expectations, we found no
 evidence that human disturbance negatively impacted ungulates
 distributions, potentially because ungulates temporally avoid humans or
 because dense vegetation cover mitigates the impacts of humans on their
 distributions. Furthermore, we detected a spatiotemporal association
 between sika deer and roe deer. Although the underlying cause of this is
 unknown, we hypothesise that interactions such as grazing facilitation or
 an anti-predator response to culling could be driving this pattern. Our
 work provides a preliminary analysis of the dynamics occurring within a
 novel ungulate community, but also highlights current knowledge gaps in
 our understanding of the underlying mechanisms dictating the observed
 spatiotemporal associations.
description: These data are the results of a camera trapping survey on the
 Bunloit estate, as detailed in the manuscript Lovell <em>et
 al</em>. 2023 titled "Habitat preferences and spatiotemporal
 associations of ungulates within a Scottish mammal
 community".  <strong>Datasets</strong>
 <strong>contact_data</strong> contains the raw data
 set extracted from the tagged camera trap images
 <strong>count_data</strong> is the number of
 independent contacts at each camera trap site, and the duration each
 camera trap was deployed for  
 <strong>Code</strong>
 <strong>Summary stats.R </strong>was used to
 calculate various summary statistics for the dataset
 <strong>Habitat Posson models.R</strong> was used to
 run the negative binomial habitat poisson models, and conduct associated
 emmeans comparisons and plots <strong>Time diff
 analysis.R </strong>was used to conduct the time interval analysis
 to assess spatiotemporal associations/avoidance
 <strong>Plotting time difference analysis.R</strong>
 was used to create the plot associated with the spatiotemporal
 analysis
description: Camera trap metadata was extracted using Exifpro, and all
 analysis was undertaken in R. 
description: # Land cover preferences and spatiotemporal associations of ungulates
 within a Scottish mammal community
 These data are the results
 of a camera trapping survey on the Bunloit rewilding project in
 Inverness-shire, as detailed in the manuscript Lovell et al. 2023 titled
 "Habitat preferences and spatiotemporal associations of ungulates
 within a Scottish mammal community".  Datasets contact_data contains
 the raw data set extracted from the tagged camera trap images. Each row
 represents an independent ungulate contact as detailed in the associated
 manuscript. Variables in this dataset utilised in future analysis are the
 'placeID' (the ID number for the camera trap), the
 'Date' and 'Time' each independent contact was
 recorded at, the 'Tag' (the species present in the image), and
 the location of each camera trap through longitude ('Long') and
 lattitude ('Lat') variables. count_data is the number of
 independent contacts at each camera trap site, and the duration each
 camera trap was deployed for. This data was generated by summing the
 independent contacts of each species at each camera trap site.
 'placeID' represents the unique camera trap ID,
 'count_Cn' is the number of independent sika deer counts,
 'count_Cc' roe deer, 'count_Ce' red deer, and
 'count_Ss' wild boar. 'effort' is the number of days
 each camera trap was successfully recording for in total over which the
 associated species contacts were recorded. 'first_date,' and
 'last_date' are the first and last date each camera trap was
 deployed for. 'habitat' represents the associated land cover
 class. 'rate_Cn', 'rate_Cc', 'rate_Ce',
 'rate_Ss' represent the number of contacts/effort for each
 camera trap and each species. Code Summary stats.R was used to calculate
 various summary statistics for the dataset. Habitat Posson models.R was
 used to run the negative binomial habitat poisson models, and conduct
 associated emmeans comparisons and plots Time diff analysis.R was used to
 conduct the time interval analysis to assess spatiotemporal
 associations/avoidance Plotting time difference analysis.R was used to
 create the plot associated with the spatiotemporal analysis Licence:
 Creative Commons ##