Daily Activity Patterns for seven mesocarnivores along an urban to rural gradient.

The proportion of activity of seven common mesocarnivores during different diel periods based on surrounding levels of development as measured by the 2019 National Land Cover Database (NLCD). Derived from data collected across 210 study sites across the United States as part of Snapshot USA 2019 and 2020 [42, 43]. Values are means ± SE.</p

S1 File -

Many species of wildlife alter their daily activity patterns in response to co-occurring species as well as the surrounding environment. Often smaller or subordinate species alter their activity patterns to avoid being active at the same time as larger, dominant species to avoid agonistic interactions. Human development can complicate interspecies interactions, as not all wildlife respond to human activity in the same manner. While some species may change the timing of their activity to avoid being active when humans are, others may be unaffected or may benefit from being active at the same time as humans to reduce predation risk or competition. To further explore these patterns, we used data from a coordinated national camera-trapping program (Snapshot USA) to explore how the activity patterns and temporal activity overlap of a suite of seven widely co-occurring mammalian mesocarnivores varied along a gradient of human development. Our focal species ranged in size from the large and often dominant coyote (Canis latrans) to the much smaller and subordinate Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana). Some species changed their activity based on surrounding human development. Coyotes were most active at night in areas of high and medium human development. Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) were more active at dusk in areas of high development relative to areas of low or medium development. However, because most species were primarily nocturnal regardless of human development, temporal activity overlap was high between all species. Only opossum and raccoon (Procyon lotor) showed changes in activity overlap with high overlap in areas of low development compared to areas of moderate development. Although we found that coyotes and red fox altered their activity patterns in response to human development, our results showed that competitive and predatory pressures between these seven widespread generalist species were insufficient to cause them to substantially alter their activity patterns.</div

Detection summary for seven mesocarnivores from Snapshot USA.

Detection summary for seven mesocarnivores from Snapshot USA.</p

Snapshot USA sites: 2019 and 2020.

Camera trap sites from Snapshot USA 2019 and 2020 (USGS National Boundary Dataset (NBD)). The 210 sites used were determined though selection of 7 species of mesocarnivores where 1) each species occurred in at least 5 sites of each development category (High (44), Medium (47), Low (119)); and 2) had at least 2 detections at each site.</p

Temporal overlap patterns between Virginia opossum (<i>Didelphis virginiana</i>) and northern raccoon (<i>Procyon lotor</i>) along an urban to rural gradient.

Daily activity overlap between Virginia opossum and northern raccoon (ON). We compare mean overlap coefficient and standard deviation values at three levels of development as measured by the 2019 National Land Cover Database (NLCD).</p

Temporal overlap coefficients for seven mesocarnivores across the United States.

Temporal overlap coefficients for seven mesocarnivores across the United States.</p

Habitat at each of the Snapshot USA camera sites used in analyses.

Habitat at each of the Snapshot USA camera sites used in analyses.</p

Sources for Eastern Massasauga life history information including locality and study years.

<p>Sources for Eastern Massasauga life history information including locality and study years.</p

Candidate model sets for life history variables.

<p>Bolded 95% confidence intervals exclude zero and therefore indicate the standardized effect size for a given explanatory variable is informative. For models with two predictor variables, the standardized effect size and 95% CI for the first and second variable are in the first and second row associated with that model. Model abbreviations are the same as in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0172011#pone.0172011.t002" target="_blank">Table 2</a>.</p

Relationship between latitude (untransformed) and size–fecundity (natural log back-transformed) as explained by the top-ranked model using AIC_c (Table 3).

<p>Female size was held constant at 55.2 cm SVL based on the average size of adult females in Cass County, Michigan. The shaded area represents the smoothed 95% CI using t-based approximations. County and district abbreviations are as in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0172011#pone.0172011.g001" target="_blank">Fig 1</a>. The image of dam and offspring was taken within minutes of parturition in Cass County, Michigan (Photograph credit, E. T. Hileman).</p