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A mule deer photographed by a remote wildlife camera in 2023 at the Tucson Mountain District of Saguaro National Park. Credit: National Park Service.
The National Park Service's Sonoran Desert Inventory and Monitoring Network uses remote, self-triggering wildlife cameras to monitor medium and large mammals in the Tucson Mountain District of Saguaro National Park. Knowing which habitats wildlife use, how that changes, and what environmental and human factors drive it helps the park protect them.
2023 highlights
- 59 cameras, deployed between January 5 and 22 and retrieved between February 23 and 26, 2023, took 3,967 photographs of mammals. Analysis covered the six weeks when most cameras were working — six seven-day sampling occasions from January 12 to February 22 — which produced 3,746 photographs of mammals.
- 13 mammal species, plus jackrabbits identifiable only to the genus Lepus. The cameras also caught birds, reptiles and amphibians; this report covers mammals.
- Coyotes and mule deer were more likely to use low than high elevations.
- Javelina and mule deer were more likely farther from roads; gray foxes farther from trails.
Nine volunteers, one international volunteer and two park staff helped deploy and retrieve the cameras.
What the cameras recorded
"Photos" counts every photograph; "detections" counts at most one per camera location per weekly occasion, the unit used in the models; "locations" is the number of camera sites where the animal appeared.
| Animal | Scientific name | Photos | Detections | Locations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collared peccary (javelina) | Pecari tajacu | 809 | 75 | 38 |
| Desert cottontail | Sylvilagus audubonii | 782 | 113 | 26 |
| Mule deer | Odocoileus hemionus | 757 | 97 | 38 |
| Black-tailed jackrabbit | Lepus californicus | 676 | 92 | 25 |
| Coyote | Canis latrans | 353 | 94 | 31 |
| Jackrabbit, species unknown | Lepus spp. | 247 | 50 | 15 |
| Common gray fox | Urocyon cinereoargenteus | 234 | 81 | 34 |
| Mountain lion | Puma concolor | 47 | 3 | 3 |
| Bobcat | Lynx rufus | 41 | 21 | 12 |
| Rock squirrel | Otospermophilus variegatus | 10 | 5 | 3 |
| American badger | Taxidea taxus | 6 | 4 | 3 |
| Ringtail | Bassariscus astutus | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| American hog-nosed skunk | Conepatus leuconotus | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Western spotted skunk | Spilogale gracilis | 1 | 1 | 1 |
- Jackrabbits. Two species live in the district, the black-tailed and the antelope jackrabbit (Lepus alleni). No antelope jackrabbits were identified; 247 photographs were too unclear to tell the two apart.
- Every species had been recorded in earlier years of monitoring here.
- Carnivores. The American badger, ringtail, bobcat, American hog-nosed skunk and spotted skunk are species of interest to the "Lost Carnivores" project, which studies the Tucson Mountains inside and outside the park.
A curious javelina inspects the camera. Credit: National Park Service.
How the models work
For each species and camera, the team recorded whether the animal was photographed in each weekly occasion — "10011" means seen in weeks one, four and five — and fitted single-season occupancy models in a Bayesian framework (the spOccupancy package in R).
- Detection could depend on the day of the year, how much of each week the camera was working, and the experience of whoever set it up (novice, under 1 year; experienced, 1–2 years; expert, over 2 years).
- Occurrence could depend on topography (aspect, elevation, slope), vegetation (vegetation class, distance to a wash) and people (distance to roads, trails, the park boundary and points of interest).
Results are probabilities between 0 and 1, with 95% credible intervals (CI).
Species by species
| Species | Where most likely | Occurrence | Detection |
|---|---|---|---|
| Javelina | hills and foothills away from roads: above 0.8 in the southeast and far north; about 0.6–0.7 where hills are nearer roads; about 0.4–0.5 in the low, flat west and northwest | — | 0.40 with experienced crews (CI 0.28–0.68) |
| Desert cottontail | no covariate explained it | 0.59 overall (CI 0.08–0.96) | 0.66 (CI 0.11–0.94), rising through the season |
| Mule deer | low ground away from roads: about 0.6–0.8 in the low west, centre and north, highest (about 0.8) far from roads; about 0.2–0.3 on southern and southeastern peaks and ridges | — | 0.49 with experienced crews (CI 0.40–0.59), falling through the season |
| Black-tailed jackrabbit | flat ground far from washes, near park boundaries that do not adjoin other protected land: above 0.75 in the west and northwest; generally under 0.5 in the hilly southeast and centre | — | 0.45 with experienced crews (CI 0.27–0.63), peaking in late January and early February |
| Coyote | low elevations; fewer than 25% of areas above 1,000 m (3,281 ft) likely used in January–February | 0.64 overall (CI 0.41–0.87) | 0.44 (CI 0.28–0.68), falling through the season |
| Gray fox | south- and west-facing ground far from trails: above 0.7 in the far west, southeast and far north | 0.60 mean (CI 0.45–0.75) | 0.49 (CI 0.38–0.61), peaking mid-season |
| Bobcat | south-facing slopes in the north, centre and southwest (above 0.5); vegetated low desert in the southwest (about 0.4–0.5); low in the hilly, often jojoba-covered southeast | — | 0.33 with experienced crews (CI 0.17–0.50) |
One surprise: detection of jackrabbits fell as the deploying crew's experience rose, whereas for javelina, mule deer and bobcats it rose with experience. Bobcats were detected rarely, so their model, though it could be fitted, is complicated. The 247 unidentified jackrabbit photographs were left out of the black-tailed jackrabbit model.
Figure 1. Predicted probability of collared peccary (javelina) occurrence, 2023. Dashed lines are park trails; solid lines are roads inside and within one kilometre of the park. Credit: National Park Service.
Figure 2. Predicted probability of mule deer occurrence, 2023. Credit: National Park Service.
Figure 3. Predicted probability of black-tailed jackrabbit occurrence, 2023. Credit: National Park Service.
Figure 5. Coyote occurrence probability by elevation (metres), 2023; the line is the mean and the grey band the 95% credible interval. Credit: National Park Service.
Figure 6. Predicted probability of gray fox occurrence, 2023. Credit: National Park Service.
Figure 7. Predicted probability of bobcat occurrence, 2023. Credit: National Park Service.
A coyote passing a remote camera in the Tucson Mountain District. Credit: National Park Service.
Sources
- McIntyre, C., J. McGeverly, and E. Zylstra. 2024. Wildlife Monitoring in Saguaro National Park, Tucson Mountain District: 2023. Sonoran Desert Network, National Park Service, Tucson, Arizona. https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/sodn-wildlife-monitoring-sagu-tmd-2023.htm
- The report calls the 3,746 figure "photos" in its overview and "detections" in its results, a word its table reserves for at most one per camera and week; it is given here as photographs.
- Rewritten in hubnx's own words.
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