Quantifying levels of animal activity using camera trap data

Summary Activity level (the proportion of time that animals spend active) is a behavioural and ecological metric that can provide an indicator of energetics, foraging effort and exposure to risk. However, activity level is poorly known for free‐living animals because it is difficult to quantify activity in the field in a consistent, cost‐effective and non‐invasive way. This article presents a new method to estimate activity level with time‐of‐detection data from camera traps (or more generally any remote sensors), fitting a flexible circular distribution to these data to describe the underlying activity schedule, and calculating overall proportion of time active from this. Using simulations and a case study…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: DEB 0717071, 0717071, NSF-DEB 0717071
• SI
  Smithsonian Institution
• ES
  Ecological Society of America
• BE
  British Ecological Society

  Award: 1897 / 2330
• NO
  Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

  Award: NWO-ALW863-07-008
• ST
  Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute