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Madelyne E. Vashaw, Eckerd College, Marine Science Discipline
Leo N. Dutkewych, Eckerd College, Environmental Studies Discipline
Sarrah E. Bristol, Eckerd College, Animal Studies Discipline
Timothy D. Bransford, Eckerd College, Animal Studies Discipline
Elizabeth A. Forys, Eckerd College, Environmental Studies and Biology Disciplines
Fort De Soto is a 260-hectare park in Pinellas County, Florida that consists of several barrier islands connected to the mainland by a road. Long-term monitoring of species abundance and richness is important to guide management decisions. Camera trapping is known to be an appropriate noninvasive method for species monitoring. We deployed twenty camera traps throughout various habitats in the park. Cameras were active from sunset to sunrise from January 2022 until January 2023, encompassing 52 weeks. To determine if we monitored long enough to sufficiently survey the number of species present, we used the Vegan Package in R to see if the number of species recorded reached an asymptote. We recorded a total of 1,659 unique observations of vertebrates, 1,604 were mammals and 55 were birds. We observed 11 species of mammals as well as 11 species of birds during our study. The mammals were dominated by omnivorous meso-mammals: Virginia opossums, raccoons, and coyotes. Yellow-crowned night herons were the most common species of bird. The species accumulation curve of the mammals reached an asymptote at approximately week 47. The bird species accumulation, however, did not reach an asymptote during this period. This study demonstrates that one year was adequate to capture the species richness of non-migratory night-active mammals. However, additional time is needed to accurately determine the species richness of our night-active avian species, some of which are migratory.
For more information:
Madelyne E. Vashaw: mevashaw@eckerd.edu
Leo N. Dutkewych: lndutkewych@eckerd.edu
Sarrah E. Bristol: sebristol@eckerd.edu
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