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Modeling Occupancy and Detection of Indy Urban Wildlife (309861)

Keywords: urban wildlife, zero-inflated model, occupancy, land management

“Indy Wildlife Watch” is a project that monitors the wildlife species living in urban and peri-urban greenspaces within and just outside of the city of Indianapolis. The project deploys motion-triggered cameras at city parks, forest remnants, riparian forests, golf courses, agricultural lands, schools, and cemeteries spanning an urban-to-peri-urban gradient from downtown Indianapolis through the northern suburbs. Data on species distribution and their habitat use are extracted from the pictures taken during four months representing each of four seasons annually at about 50 sites. The occupancy and detection of each species are modeled using a series of Zero-Inflated regression models with covariates distance to city center and habitat type. This poster presents the model, results, and the impact of distance to city center and habitat type on the predicted occupancy and detection of urban wildlife in Indianapolis. Through further analysis, covariate information can be utilized to predict occupancy of a species given a particular environmental attribute and utilized to inform urban land management practices.