DOI: 10.5061/dryad.0cfxpnw2g
title: Tayra (eira barbara) landscape use as a function of cover types, forest protection, and the presence of puma and free-ranging dogs

description: The tayra (Eira barbara) is a common and broadly distributed Neotropical
 carnivore, yet is not well-studied.  While this species is
 apparently associated with forested habitats, it also appears tolerant of
 some anthropogenic disturbance. We deployed 57 unbaited camera traps (n =
 4,923 trap-days) in and around a protected area (Furnas do Bom Jesus State
 Park, São Paulo, Brazil) to survey for tayra and two potentially
 interactive species: puma (Puma concolor) and free-ranging dogs (Canis
 familiaris). We used encounter histories generated from photographs and
 occupancy models to quantify tayra landscape use in the human-dominated
 landscape composed of the protected area that was near a city and
 surrounded by agricultural lands dominated by small farms. We fit
 co-occurrence models to understand whether puma and free-ranging dogs
 affected landscape use by tayra. We detected tayra at 44% of sites and
 found that tayra landscape use increased with the proportion of forest
 cover within 500m of the sampling site. Other factors predicting tayra
 landscape use included whether the sampling site was within the protected
 area, its distance to water, and slope. Dogs, which are common on the
 periphery of the protected area, seem to have a weak negative effect on
 tayra landscape use. Because of the concentration of forest within the
 park, this is an important protected area for the carnivore population
 within this human-modified landscape. Thus, environmental variables, such
 as forest cover, distance to water, as well as administrative protection
 status, are important for understanding local-scale tayra distribution.
description: The study area included the Furnas
 do Bom Jesus State Park (20°11'14" to 20°16'34"S and
 47°22'13" to 47°29'17" W; hereafter, Furnas), a 2069
 ha protected area within in a cerrado landscape in the municipality of
 Pedregulho, São Paulo State, Brazil. We used
 unbaited<i> </i>camera traps (Bushnell® Trophy Cam 6.0 Mpxl
 and Scoutguard ® SG 550) to survey for tayra, puma, and free-ranging dogs
 at 60 sampling sites between January and August 2017. We placed the camera
 traps at each intersection of a 1 km<sup>2</sup> grid
 extending inside (n=44) and outside of Furnas (n=16) (Figure 1) totaling
 4,815 ha of sampled area. Three of the camera traps failed, so our final
 sample of surveyed sites was 57. We affixed cameras to tree trunks
 approximately 30–40 cm above ground and programmed for continuous
 operation (24 hours/day), capturing three photographs at each triggering
 event with a 10 second interval between events. We deployed camera traps
 for 60 to 132 days at each sampling point and checked camera operation
 every 15–20 days. Camera trapping is a continuous form of monitoring, so
 we subdivided the survey period for each camera into discrete intervals
 representing sampling occasions. We generated encounter histories for each
 species at each camera with detections and non-detections dividing data
 into nine 12-day sampling occasions.