Additional Information

We will read and discuss the camera trapping literature and identify key assumptions that are made regarding designing camera trap studies for occupancy and capture-recapture. We will place an emphasis on spatial processes and investigate sampling design choices (e.g., systematic random, simple random, clustered, trap spacing) and how they are affected by objectives and state variables of interest (e.g., species richness, diversity, abundance, density, site-level occupancy, species distribution, behavior, connectivity). The 2 credit option will explore implications of different design choices (e.g., what is optimal trap spacing under uniform and clustered designs for objectives related to density estimation vs. connectivity vs. occupancy? What is the best design when accounting for individual heterogeneity?) via simulation in the R programming environment, and will contribute to a group manuscript that will be published in the peer reviewed literature.