Temporal Activity Levels of Mammals in Patches of Early Successional and Mature Forest Habitat in Eastern Connecticut

Abstract

Combining our knowledge of how wildlife species behave across space and time broadens our understanding of patterns of resource use. Temporal patterns of activity may be shaped by species morphology and physiology, major disturbances in an ecosystem, seasonal shifts in abundances of resources, or habitat preferences. Camera traps and univariate kernel density estimates can now be used to quantify temporal activity patterns throughout the day in wildlife. Our goals were to quantify how daily activity patterns of mammals common to southern New England differ between two focal habitat types [i.e., early successional (ES) and mature hardwood (MH) forest patches] and to quantify how temporal activity patterns change seasonally. For all species with sufficient observations, temporal activity patterns did not differ significantly between adjacent ES and MH habitat patches. Daily temporal activity was greatest in the fall and winter for cottontail (Sylvilagus spp.), but we did not detect shifts in activity among seasons in any other species. With sufficient data these methods could be expanded to address questions of how temporal activity patterns may change when compared across an interaction of seasons and habitats, as well as how patterns of temporal activity change in the context of the broader surrounding landscape.