LE3 .A278 2020

2020

Avery, Trevor
Mockford, Steve
Milton, Randy
Stanley, Ryan

Acadia University

Master of Science

Masters

Biology

Biology

Road networks and traffic have demonstrable effects on the survival and behavior of individual mammals that can culminate in negative population impacts. Despite a need for assessing mammalian species assemblages at new and existing roads, simple and efficient non-targeted survey options are limited. Camera arrays and foot-based surveys at plots, transects, and surrounding roads were used at a highway construction and stream intersection to inventory medium-to-large mammals and assess the positioning of detections in time and space. Cameras (64,334 images and 1,237 survey days), plot and transect (328 plot and 25-m transect segment surveys), and road (448 km) surveys detected 15 mammal species, 13 of which were expected on-site. Qualitatively, most detections aligned with species-specific temporal (monthly, time-of-day) and spatial (habitat, landscape features) activity patterns. Fine and coarse spatial tests had contradictory results for snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) and white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), signifying survey methods were unable to distinguish small-scale spatial activity patterns for these species, possibly due to unequal survey effort or small survey areas relative to home range size. Cameras provided more reliable data than foot-based surveys; non-camera surveys can provide supplementary data and inform camera placement. Method choice, survey design, and implementation must be informed by project objectives; design considerations are more complex where frequency, temporal, or spatial variables are important. Future work must re-assess cameras and foot-based surveys where effort is standardized across assessed spatial and temporal scales and among survey methods. Comparisons in detection efficiency by species between non-targeted surveys and species-specific methods should be conducted.

The author retains copyright in this thesis. Any substantial copying or any other actions that exceed fair dealing or other exceptions in the Copyright Act require the permission of the author.

https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:3470