Wildlife inventory in the Azores using camera trapping

Sampling event
Latest version published by Universidade dos Açores on Oct 31, 2019 Universidade dos Açores
Publication date:
31 October 2019
Published by:
Universidade dos Açores
License:
CC-BY 4.0

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Description

The present publication provides a data set from five camera-trapping sampling campaigns on two islands of the Azorean archipelago (Pico and Terceira islands). Between 2013 and 2018, two sampling campaigns were conducted on Terceira island ("TER_13-15" survey) and on Terceira and Pico islands ("TER-PIC_18" survey) aimed to study the ecology of introduced mammals. A third sampling campaign was performed between 2015 and 2017 sampling was performed in vineyards on Terceira island in order to evaluate grape consumption by vertebrates species ("Vineyards_15-17" survey). Additionally, between 2016 and 2018, two sampling campaigns were performed in Terceira island, in order to assess the impact of introduced mammals on native birds, on Cory's Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea borealis; "Calonectris_16" survey) and the Azores woodpigeon (Columba palumba azorica; "Columba_17-18" survey), through nest predation monitoring. A total of 258 sites and 47 nests were sampled using camera traps. These sampling campaigns provided a large data series that allowed create a vertebrate wildlife inventory of Azores

Data Records

The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 2,308 records.

1 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.

Event (core)
2308
Occurrence 
108186

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Lamelas-López L, Pardavila X, Amorim I, Borges P A V (2019): Wildlife inventory in the Azores using camera trapping. v1.4. Universidade dos Açores. Dataset/Samplingevent. http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=camera_trapping_azores&v=1.4

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Universidade dos Açores. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 7d6b90d2-14c0-4ba6-9e45-449b56bab878.  Universidade dos Açores publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF Portugal.

Keywords

Camera-traps; Vertebrates; Oceanic islands; Introduced species

Contacts

Lucas Lamelas-López
  • Metadata Provider
  • Originator
  • Point Of Contact
Ph.D. Student
University of Azores
Rua Capitão João d´Ávila, Pico da Urze
9700-042 Angra do Heroismo
Azores
PT
926685523
Xose Pardavila
  • Originator
Ph.D. Student
University of Santiago de Compostela
Rúa Lope Gómez de Marzoa
15782 Santiago de Compostela
Galicia
ES
Isabel Amorim
  • Originator
Researcher
University of Azores
Rua Capitão João d´Ávila, Pico da Urze
9700-042 Angra do Heroismo
Azores
PT
968933212
Paulo A. V. Borges
  • Originator
  • Point Of Contact
Professor
University of Azores
Rua Capitão João d´Ávila, Pico da Urze
9700-042 Angra do Heroismo
Azores
PT
968933212

Geographic Coverage

Pico and Terceira islands, the Azores, Macaronesia, Portugal.

Bounding Coordinates South West [36.875, -31.311], North East [39.762, -24.966]

Taxonomic Coverage

The majority of observed vertebrates were identified to species level. In some few cases only the genus, family, order or class were identified.

Class Mammalia (Mammals), Aves (Birds), Reptilia (Reptiles), Amphibia (Amphibians)

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 2013-09-08 / 2018-07-10

Project Data

The present publication provides a data set from five camera-trapping sampling campaigns on two islands of the Azorean archipelago (Pico and Terceira islands). Between 2013 and 2018, two sampling campaigns were conducted on Terceira island ("TER_13-15" survey) and on Terceira and Pico islands ("TER-PIC_18" survey) aimed to study the ecology of introduced mammals. A third sampling campaign was performed between 2015 and 2017 sampling was performed in vineyards on Terceira island in order to evaluate grape consumption by vertebrates species ("Vineyards_15-17" survey). Additionally, between 2016 and 2018, two sampling campaigns were performed in Terceira island, in order to assess the impact of introduced mammals on native birds, on Cory's Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea borealis; "Calonectris_16" survey) and the Azores woodpigeon (Columba palumba azorica; "Columba_17-18" survey), through nest predation monitoring. A total of 258 sites and 47 nests were sampled using camera traps. These sampling campaigns provided a large data series that allowed create a vertebrate wildlife inventory of Azores.

Title Wildlife inventory from camera-trapping surveys in the Azores (Pico and Terceira islands)
Identifier AZORESBIOPORTAL
Funding LLL was supported by a grant from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCT (SFRH/BD/115022/2016). Open access was funded by FEDER (85%) and by Azorean Public funds (15%), through the Operational Program Azores 2020 under the project AZORESBIOPORTAL – PORBIOTA (ACORES-01-0145-FEDER-000072).
Study Area Description Terceira (area: 400.6 km²; elevation: 1,021 m.a.s.l.) and Pico (area: 444.8 km²; elevation: 2351 m.a.s.l.) islands are two of the nine islands from the Azores archipelago, located in the North Atlantic. The climate in the Azores is temperate oceanic, with regular and abundant rainfall, with high levels of relative humidity and persistent winds. The landscape is relatively similar in all islands of the archipelago, with urban and rural areas being concentrated near the coast, at the lowest elevations. At intermediate elevations, the dominant land cover types include crops, pasturelands, and exotic tree plantations of the Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) and Australian cheesewood (Pittosporum undulatum). The native vegetation remnants are found at the highest elevations and in the most inaccessible areas.
Design Description This dataset was obtained from different sampling campaigns performed between 2013 and 2018 in two islands of the central group of the Azores archipelago, Pico and Terceira Islands. We described the study extent of the different sampling campaigns below: 1) The survey "TER_13-15" was conducted between 2013 and 2015 on Terceira island to investigate the ecology of introduced mammals. A total of 72 sites were sampled, but five sites were excluded due to camera failures. Each site was sampled during seven consecutive days. 2) The survey "PIC-TER_18" was conduced in 2018, on Pico and Terceira islands to investigate the ecology of introduced mammals. A total of 69 sites were sampled, with 33 and 34 sites located in Pico and Terceira islands, respectively. Each site was sampled during ten consecutive days. 3) The survey "Vineyards_15-17" was conduced in three consecutive years (2015, 2016 and 2017) in a vineyards area known as Protected Landscape Area of "Vinhas dos Biscoitos", located in the North of Terceira island, to evaluate grape consumption by vertebrates. A total of 117 sites were sampled, with 20, 49 and 48 sites sampled during 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. Each site was sampled during seven consecutive days. 4) The survey "Calonectris_16" was conducted in 2016, on Terceira island to asses the impact of introduced mammals. A total of 17 nests of Calonectris diomedea borealis were sampled. Each nest was sampled during ten consecutive days. 5) The survey "Columba_17-18" was conducted in 2017 and 2018, on Terceira island to assess the impact of introduced mammals. A total of 30 nests of Columba palumbus azorica were sampled, with 9 and 21 sites sampled in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Each nest was sampled during ten consecutive days. All sites were sampled using camera traps, which were fixed to a tree or wooden stick. Sampling effort was measured as camera-traps days, i.e., the number of camera traps multiplied by the number of days that they remained active. The sensitivity of the infrared sensor was configured to high to increase the species detection. Cameras were configured to take events with 30 seconds of delay between them, recording the date and time of each event. Cameras remained active 24 hours per day. For the surveys "TER_13-15" and "PIC-TER_18" sampling sites were randomly selected, separated at least by 1 km. In each sampling site one camera trap and a bait were deployed, 150-200 cm apart. Bait, consisting of meat or fish, fruit or vegetables and molasses, was used to increase the species detection. For the surveys "Vineyards_15-17", "Calonectris_16" and "Columba_17-18" no bait was used. In the case of the "Vineyards_15-17" survey, sampling sites were selected at random, deploying one camera per each site, facing bunches of grapes. For "Calonectris_16" and "Columba_17-18" surveys, one camera was installed at 50-150 cm from the study nest.

The personnel involved in the project:

Sampling Methods

All sites were sampled using camera traps, which were fixed to a tree or wooden stick. Sampling effort was measured as camera-traps days, i.e., the number of camera traps multiplied by the number of days that they remained active (Rovero et al. 2010). The sensitivity of the infrared sensor was configured to high to increase the species detection (O’Connell et al. 2011). Cameras were configured to take events with 30 seconds of delay between them, recording the date and time of each event. Cameras remained active 24 hours per day. For the surveys "TER_13-15" and "PIC-TER_18" sampling sites were randomly selected, separated at least by 1 km. In each sampling site one camera trap and a bait were deployed, 150-200 cm apart. Bait, consisting of meat or fish, fruit or vegetables and molasses, was used to increase the species detection (du Preez et al. 2014). For the surveys "Vineyards_15-17", "Calonectris_16" and "Columba_17-18" no bait was used. In the case of the "Vineyards_15-17" survey, sampling sites were selected at random, deploying one camera per each site, facing bunches of grapes. For "Calonectris_16" and "Columba_17-18" surveys, one camera was installed at 50-150 cm from the study nest.

Study Extent This dataset was obtained from different sampling campaigns performed between 2013 and 2018 in two islands of the central group of the Azores archipelago, Pico and Terceira Islands. We described the study extent of the different sampling campaigns below: 1) The survey "TER_13-15" was conducted between 2013 and 2015 on Terceira island to investigate the ecology of introduced mammals. A total of 72 sites were sampled, but five sites were excluded due to camera failures. Each site was sampled during seven consecutive days. 2) The survey "PIC-TER_18" was conduced in 2018, on Pico and Terceira islands to investigate the ecology of introduced mammals. A total of 69 sites were sampled, with 33 and 34 sites located in Pico and Terceira islands, respectively. Each site was sampled during ten consecutive days. 3) The survey "Vineyards_15-17" was conduced in three consecutive years (2015, 2016 and 2017) in a vineyards area known as Protected Landscape Area of "Vinhas dos Biscoitos", located in the North of Terceira island, to evaluate grape consumption by vertebrates. A total of 117 sites were sampled, with 20, 49 and 48 sites sampled during 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. Each site was sampled during seven consecutive days. 4) The survey "Calonectris_16" was conducted in 2016, on Terceira island to asses the impact of introduced mammals. A total of 17 nests of Calonectris diomedea borealis were sampled. Each nest was sampled during ten consecutive days. 5) The survey "Columba_17-18" was conducted in 2017 and 2018, on Terceira island to assess the impact of introduced mammals. A total of 30 nests of Columba palumbus azorica were sampled, with 9 and 21 sites sampled in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Each nest was sampled during ten consecutive days.

Method step description:

  1. The data has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardised format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table (events) contains 2,308 records and one data table extension also exists (occurrence), with 108,186 records. The extension supplies extra information about the core record.

Additional Metadata

Alternative Identifiers 7d6b90d2-14c0-4ba6-9e45-449b56bab878
http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=camera_trapping_azores