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SNAPSHOT USA 2019: a coordinated national camera trap survey of the United States

Authors:

Michael Cove

Roland Kays

Helen Bontrager

Claire Bresnan

Monica Lasky

Taylor Frerichs

Renee Klann

Thomas Lee

Seth Crockett

Anthony Crupi

Katherine Weiss

Helen McDowell

Tiffany McDowell

Jan Schipper

Chelsey Tellez

Christopher Lepczyk

Jean Fantle‐Lepczyk

Scott LaPoint

Jacque Williamson

Caitlin Fisher‐Reid

Sean King

Alexandra Bebko

Petros Chrysafis

Alex Jensen

David Jachowski

Joshua Sands

Kelly MacCombie

Daniel Herrera

Marius Merwe

Travis Knowles

Robert Horan

Michael Rentz

LaRoy Brandt

Christopher Nagy

Brandon Barton

Weston Thompson

Sean Maher

Andrea Darracq

George Hess

Arielle Parsons

Brenna Wells

Gary Roemer

Cristian Hernandez

Matthew Gompper

Stephen Webb

John Vanek

Diana Lafferty

Amelia Bergquist

Tru Hubbard

Tavis Forrester

Darren Clark

Connor Cincotta

Jorie Favreau

Aaron Facka

Michelle Halbur

Steven Hammerich

Morgan Gray

Christine Rega‐Brodsky

Caleb Durbin

Elizabeth Flaherty

Jarred Brooke

Stephanie Coster

Richard Lathrop

Katarina Russell

Daniel Bogan

Rachel Cliché

Hila Shamon

Melissa Hawkins

Sharyn Marks

Robert Lonsinger

Teague O'Mara

Justin Compton

Melinda Fowler

Erika Barthelmess

Katherine Andy

Jerrold Belant

Dean Beyer

Todd Kautz

Daniel Scognamillo

Christopher Schalk

Matthew Leslie

Sophie Nasrallah

Caroline Ellison

Chip Ruthven

Sarah Fritts

Jaquelyn Tleimat

Mandy Gay

Christopher Whittier

Sean Neiswenter

Robert Pelletier

Brett DeGregorio

Erin Kuprewicz

Miranda Davis

Adrienne Dykstra

David Mason

Carolina Baruzzi

Marcus Lashley

Derek Risch

Melissa Price

Maximilian I

Laura Whipple

Jinelle Sperry

Robert Hagen

Alessio Mortelliti

Bryn Evans

Colin Studds

Alexej Sirén

Jillian Kilborn

Chris Sutherland

Paige Warren

Todd Fuller

Nyeema Harris

Neil Carter

Edward Trout

Marketa Zimova

Sean Giery

Fabiola Iannarilli

Summer Higdon

Ronald Revord

Christopher Hansen

Joshua Millspaugh

Adam Zorn

John Benson

Nathaniel Wehr

Jaylin Solberg

Brian Gerber

Jessica Burr

Jennifer Sevin

Austin Green

Çağan Şekercioğlu

Mary Pendergast

Kelsey Barnick

Andrew Edelman

Joanne Wasdin

Andrea Romero

Brian O'Neill

Noel Schmitz

Jesse Alston

Kellie Kuhn

Damon Lesmeister

Mark Linnell

Cara Appel

Christopher Rota

Jennifer Stenglein

Christine Anhalt‐Depies

Carrie Nelson

Robert Long

Kodi Jaspers

Kathryn Remine

Mark Jordan

Daniel Davis

Haydée Hernández‐Yáñez

Jennifer Zhao

William McShea

+149 more
Publication Type:
Journal Article
Year of Publication:
2021
Publisher:
Wiley
Secondary Title:
Ecology
ISSN:
0012-9658, 1939-9170
DOI:
10.1002/ecy.3353
Issue:
6
Volume:
102
Year:
2021

Abstract

With the accelerating pace of global change, it is imperative that we obtain rapid inventories of the status and distribution of wildlife for ecological inferences and conservation planning. To address this challenge, we launched the SNAPSHOT USA project, a collaborative survey of terrestrial wildlife populations using camera traps across the United States. For our first annual survey, we compiled data across all 50 states during a 14-week period (17 August–24 November of 2019). We sampled wildlife at 1,509 camera trap sites from 110 camera trap arrays covering 12 different ecoregions across four development zones. This effort resulted in 166,036 unique detections of 83 species of mammals and 17 species of birds. All images were processed through the Smithsonian’s eMammal camera trap data repository and included an expert review phase to ensure taxonomic accuracy of data, resulting in each picture being reviewed at least twice. The results represent a timely and standardized camera trap survey of the United States. All of the 2019 survey data are made available herein. We are currently repeating surveys in fall 2020, opening up the opportunity to other institutions and cooperators to expand coverage of all the urban–wild gradients and ecophysiographic regions of the country. Future data will be available as the database is updated at eMammal.si.edu/snapshot-usa, as will future data paper submissions. These data will be useful for local and macroecological research including the examination of community assembly, effects of environmental and anthropogenic landscape variables, effects of fragmentation and extinction debt dynamics, as well as species-specific population dynamics and conservation action plans.