Camera traps
To compare metabarcoding results to methods traditionally used for
profiling animal abundance and/or occurrence, we used digital infrared
camera traps (Bushnell®) to sample vertebrate
diversity from May 2015 - March 2016 at 33 of the 39 sites where we
collected arthropods as iDNA sources. In total, we deployed 116 camera
traps for a total of 5,093 camera days and cameras per site varied from
two to seven although at the majority of sites three cameras were
utilized. We set up the camera traps 40 cm above the ground and they
were active 24-hours per day. Camera days per camera ranged from 26 –
92 with the average number of camera days equal to 44 days.