Biodiv Sci ›› 2014, Vol. 22 ›› Issue (6): 764-772.  DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1003.2014.14176

Special Issue: 野生动物的红外相机监测

• Original Papers • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Camera traps and the minimum trapping effort for ground-dwelling mammals in fragmented habitats in the Thousand Island Lake, Zhejiang Province

Aichun Xu1,2, Xingfeng Si1, Yanping Wang1, Ping Ding1,*()   

  1. 1. College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058
    2. College of Life Sciences, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou 310018
  • Received:2014-08-25 Accepted:2014-11-24 Online:2014-11-20 Published:2014-12-11
  • Contact: Ding Ping

Abstract:

Sixty camera traps were set on 32 islands and one terrestrial plot in the Thousand Island Lake region from May 1, 2011 to March 31, 2014. In total, we recorded 23,639 photos that included nine species of large ground-dwelling mammals with a rate of independent photographs of 2.62%. The species-area relationship showed that species richness increased with island area (ha) with a slope, z value, of 0.27. On large islands (> 10 ha), the minimum trapping effort increased with island area. On small islands (< 10 ha), however, there was no clear pattern. The minimum trapping effort was not correlated with island isolation (d.f. = 20, F = 3.067, P = 0.095). Our results suggested that large ground-dwelling mammal populations have disappeared on smaller islands since the lake was formed. Based on these findings, we suggest that large MTE’s are required in islands with large areas when using camera traps in a fragmented landscape. On small islands, researchers should vary trapping efforts according to the island’s attributes, including species resources.

Key words: fragmented habitat, island biogeography, land-bridge islands, ground-dwelling mammals, monitoring