Elephant water source events, Ruaha-Rungwa 2019-2020

Abstract

This dataset was generated by a study investigating how anthropogenic risk influences water source use by African savanna elephants. This dataset includes the date, time, and location of independent detection events of elephants from camera trap photos at water sources in the Ruaha-Rungwa ecosystem of Tanzania in 2019-2020. Independent elephant detection events were defined as images of elephants that were separated by more than 15 minutes (Gaynor et al., 2018). Each row in the dataset is a detection event. Each event is associated with a camera trap station (column ‘Station’). Event times are event start times (the time of the first photograph in an event). Column ‘Time_clock’ is the event time expressed as the time on a 24-hour clock. Column ‘Time_dec’ is the event time expressed as a decimal. Column ‘Time_rad’ is the event time in radians (Ridout & Linkie, 2009). Column ‘Time_suntime’ is the event time expressed as 'sun time' (in radians) in order to account for geographic and temporal variation in the times of sunrise and sunset over the study area and study period Nouvellert et al., 2012; Ridout & Linkie, 2009). Water sources varied in their risk to elephants (column ‘Risk’). Low-risk water sources (coded as Low) were located in the core area of Ruaha National Park. High-risk water sources (coded as Highpark) were located in high-risk areas within Ruaha National Park. High-risk village water sources (coded as Highvillage) were located on village land. Events occurred either in the dry season or the wet season (column ‘Season’). I coded group type (column ‘Group type’) for each event as: cow-calf (CC), lone bull (LB), bull group (BG), mixed group (M) of cow-calf plus mature males, or unknown (U). The number of individuals per event was also coded (column ‘Count’). I also coded whether or not elephants engaged in vigilant pauses (columns ‘Pause1’ and ‘Pause2). Pauses were coded as non-vigilant pause (NVPause), vigilant pause (VPause), unknown pause (UPause), and NoPause if no pauses were observed in an event. More than one type of pause could be present per event. References: Gaynor, K. M., Branco, P. S., Long, R. A., Gonçalves, D. D., Granli, P. K., & Poole, J. H. (2018). Effects of human settlement and roads on diel activity patterns of elephants (Loxodonta africana). African Journal of Ecology, 56(4), 872-881. Nouvellet, P., Rasmussen, G. S. A., Macdonald, D. W., & Courchamp, F. (2012). Noisy clocks and silent sunrises: measurement methods of daily activity pattern. Journal of Zoology, 286(3), 179-184. Ridout, M. S., & Linkie, M. (2009). Estimating overlap of daily activity patterns from camera trap data. Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics, 14(3), 322–337.