DATA COLLECTION
For this course project, I used camera-trap data of the focal species (Coyote, Lepus sp., Snowshoe hare and porcupine) collected from 17 urban parks in Edmonton's river valley (Alberta, Canada) from 2018 to 2021. The study area provides one of the largest interconnected green spaces in North America. Edmonton's North Saskatchewan River Valley is 7,400 ha in area and spans a linear distance of 48 km (City of Edmonton 2018a), preserving a high degree of connectivity for wildlife. For the analysis, I pooled data together collected from all the sampling years to achieve a sufficient sample size for the comparisons between seasons. Seasons were defined as Summer (April to October) and Winter (November to March) based on snow coverage in the city.
Figure 1. Research intern, Marlen Terrazas. Urban Wildlife Information Network
SAMPLING DESIGN
All sites are located in the City of Edmonton, and camera traps were separated by a distance >1 km to promote spatial independence (Figure 2). Cameras were installed in 2018 by a team from the City of Edmonton and Dr. Colleen Cassady St. Clair Lab (Biological Sciences Faculty, University of Alberta) at a height of 1 m above ground and during each camera deployment or check, date, time, site name, GPS location, camera number and SD card number were recorded. For this project, data from 7 off-leash parks and 10 on-leash parks were selected.
Figure 2. Map of Edmonton with camera locations along the river valley.