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Opportunities for people to interact with nature have declined over the past century, as many now live in urban areas and spend much of their time indoors. Conservation attitudes and behaviors largely depend on experiences with nature, and this \"extinction of experience\" (EOE) is a threat to biodiversity conservation. In this paper, we propose that citizen science, an increasingly popular way to integrate public outreach with data collection, can potentially mitigate EOE. Our review of the literature on volunteers' motivations and/or outcomes indicates that nature-based citizen science (NBCS) fosters cognitive and emotional aspects of experiences in nature. Although these experiences can change participants' behaviors and attitudes toward the natural world, this field remains largely unstudied. As such, even though NBCS can complement efforts to increase opportunities for people to interact with nature, further research on the mechanisms that drive this relationship is needed to strengthen our understanding of various outcomes of citizen science.

Citizen science has been touted as an effective means to collect large-scale data while engaging the public. We demonstrate that children as young as 9 years old can collect valuable mammal monitoring data using camera traps while connecting with nature and learning through their own scientific discoveries. Indian, Kenyan, Mexican, and American students used camera traps near their schools and detected 13–37 species, all of which were verified by professionals. These data describe rich mammal faunas near schools, sometimes surpassing nearby protected areas, and included five endangered species. Ninety-four percent of the camera traps were set in accordance with scientific protocols, and the teachers reported the experience as highly engaging for their students. Furthermore, the generated photos and results had community-wide impacts involving local politicians, community members, and the media. We show that children can run sensors to contribute valid scientific data important for conservation and research.

Developed areas are thought to have low species diversity, low animal abundance, few native predators, and thus low resilience and ecological function. Working with citizen scientist volunteers to survey mammals at 1427 sites across two development gradients (wild-rural-exurban-suburban-urban) and four plot types (large forests, small forest fragments, open areas and residential yards) in the eastern US, we show that developed areas actually had significantly higher or statistically similar mammalian occupancy, relative abundance, richness and diversity compared to wild areas. However, although some animals can thrive in suburbia, conservation of wild areas and preservation of green space within cities are needed to protect sensitive species and to give all species the chance to adapt and persist in the Anthropocene. Humans transform natural ecosystems worldwide into towns and cities, replacing natural habitat with human-built surfaces. This loss of habitat and increase in human activity make suburban areas difficult for some species to survive in, raising concerns that developed areas become ecologically unbalanced as they lose biodiversity. However, the preservation of urban green space and lack of hunting could also open the door for some species to thrive in the midst of large human populations. Indeed, some animals, mammals in particular, have grown more tolerant of humans and appear to have adapted to suburban landscapes around the world. Some species that have been exclusively living in the wilderness, such as a small carnivore called the fisher, are even moving back into cities. Research into how mammals are coping with the urbanization of their habitats has produced conflicting results. Studies that explore a variety of cities and habitats would help to clear up this confusion. Parsons et al. worked with citizen scientist volunteers to survey the mammals at 1,427 sites across Washington DC and Raleigh, North Carolina. The volunteers set up motion-triggered cameras in these sites, which covered a full range of urban and wild habitats, including back yards and large nature preserves. The cameras detected similar or higher numbers of mammal species in suburban sites compared to wild areas. Indeed, most species appear to use suburban areas at least as much as wild land. Urban green space is especially important; it is used by less urban-adapted species like coyotes to navigate areas that are densely populated by humans. The results presented by Parsons et al. suggest that many mammals have indeed adapted to the suburban environment over the last few decades, resulting in more balanced urban ecosystems. More testing in other cities will help to determine how general this pattern of adaptation is, and provide us with knowledge that could help us to conserve many different species. However, some species were still most abundant in wild areas, emphasizing the need to also conserve wildlands and to minimize our impact on natural ecosystems.

Interspecific interactions can provoke temporal and spatial avoidance, ultimately affecting population densities and spatial distribution patterns. The ability (or inability) of species to coexist has consequences for diversity and ultimately ecosystem stability. Urbanization is predicted to change species interactions but its relative impact is not well known. Urbanization gradients offer the opportunity to evaluate the effect of humans on species interactions by comparing community dynamics across levels of disturbance. We used camera traps deployed by citizen scientists to survey mammals along urbanization gradients of two cities (Washington, DC and Raleigh, NC, USA). We used a multispecies occupancy model with four competing predator species to test whether forest fragmentation, interspecific interactions, humans or prey had the greatest influence on carnivore distribution. Our study produced 6,413 carnivore detections from 1,260 sites in two cities, sampling both private and public lands. All species used all levels of the urbanization gradient to a similar extent, but co‐occurrence of urban‐adapted foxes with less urban‐adapted bobcats and coyotes was dependent on the availability of green space, especially as urbanization increased. This suggests green space allows less urban‐adapted species to occupy suburban areas, but focuses their movements through remaining forest patches, leading to more species interactions. Synthesis and applications. Species interactions, forest fragmentation and human‐related covariates were important determinants of carnivore occupancy across a gradient of urbanization with the relative importance of forest fragmentation being highest. We found evidence of both positive and negative interactions across the gradient with some dependent on available green space, suggesting that fragmentation leads to higher levels of spatial interaction. Where green space is adequate, there appears to be sufficient opportunity for coexistence between carnivore species in an urban landscape. Species interactions, forest fragmentation and human‐related covariates were important determinants of carnivore occupancy across a gradient of urbanization with the relative importance of forest fragmentation being highest. We found evidence of both positive and negative interactions across the gradient with some dependent on available green space, suggesting that fragmentation leads to higher levels of spatial interaction. Where green space is adequate, there appears to be sufficient opportunity for coexistence between carnivore species in an urban landscape.

Spatial patterns of relatedness within animal populations are important in the evolution of mating and social systems, and have the potential to reveal information on species that are difficult to observe in the wild. This study examines the fine-scale genetic structure and connectivity of groups within African forest elephants, Loxodonta cyclotis, which are often difficult to observe due to forest habitat. We tested the hypothesis that genetic similarity will decline with increasing geographic distance, as we expect kin to be in closer proximity, using spatial autocorrelation analyses and Tau K(r) tests. Associations between individuals were investigated through a non-invasive genetic capture-recapture approach using network models, and were predicted to be more extensive than the small groups found in observational studies, similar to fission-fusion sociality found in African savanna (Loxodonta africana) and Asian (Elephas maximus) species. Dung samples were collected in Lopé National Park, Gabon in 2008 and 2010 and genotyped at 10 microsatellite loci, genetically sexed, and sequenced at the mitochondrial DNA control region. We conducted analyses on samples collected at three different temporal scales: a day, within six-day sampling sessions, and within each year. Spatial autocorrelation and Tau K(r) tests revealed genetic structure, but results were weak and inconsistent between sampling sessions. Positive spatial autocorrelation was found in distance classes of 0-5 km, and was strongest for the single day session. Despite weak genetic structure, individuals within groups were significantly more related to each other than to individuals between groups. Social networks revealed some components to have large, extensive groups of up to 22 individuals, and most groups were composed of individuals of the same matriline. Although fine-scale population genetic structure was weak, forest elephants are typically found in groups consisting of kin and based on matrilines, with some individuals having more associates than observed from group sizes alone.

Interactions between species can influence their distribution and fitness, with potential cascading ecosystem effects. Human disturbance can affect these competitive dynamics but is difficult to measure due to potential simultaneous spatial and temporal responses. We used camera traps with a multispecies occupancy model incorporating a continuous‐time detection process to evaluate spatial and temporal interactions between two competing carnivore species, coyote (Canis latrans) and gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), along an urbanization gradient. Coyotes were less likely to occupy high housing density sites than gray foxes, but the two species were more likely to co‐occur in suburban forest fragments. Gray foxes were less likely to occupy low housing density sites in the presence of coyotes, shifted their activity patterns to be more nocturnal when coyotes were present and avoided sites recently used by coyotes. These effects were most pronounced where forest cover was low, suggesting these shifts are not necessary where forest cover is high, perhaps due to the gray fox's ability to climb trees. Gray foxes did not spatially or temporally avoid coyotes moving through the suburban matrix nor did precipitation mediate temporal avoidance in suburban habitats (i.e., by washing away scent), possibly because coyotes are less likely to establish territories at high housing densities, and thus less likely to scent mark. As reports of gray fox declines in portions of North America mount and coyotes are implicated, our results suggest that preserving tree cover could be important for gray fox persistence. At least 50% of forest cover in a 1 km radius resulted in lower coyote occupancy with gray fox occupancy rising to ≥0.1, suggesting a good benchmark for management.

The decline in the number of hours Americans spend outdoors, exacerbated by urbanization, has affected people’s familiarity with local wildlife. This is concerning to conservationists, as people tend to care about and invest in what they know. Children represent the future supporters of conservation, such that their knowledge about and feelings toward wildlife have the potential to influence conservation for many years to come. Yet, little research has been conducted on children’s attitudes toward wildlife, particularly across zones of urbanization. We surveyed 2,759 4–8th grade children across 22 suburban, exurban, and rural schools in North Carolina to determine their attitudes toward local, domestic, and exotic animals. We predicted that children who live in rural or exurban areas, where they may have more direct access to more wildlife species, would list more local animals as “liked” and fewer as “scary” compared to children in suburban areas. However, children, regardless of where they lived, provided mostly non-native mammals for open-ended responses, and were more likely to list local animals as scary than as liked. We found urbanization to have little effect on the number of local animals children listed, and the rankings of “liked” animals were correlated across zones of urbanization. Promising for conservation was that half of the top “liked” animals included species or taxonomic groups containing threatened or endangered species. Despite different levels of urbanization, children had either an unfamiliarity with and/or low preference for local animals, suggesting that a disconnect between children and local biodiversity is already well-established, even in more rural areas where many wildlife species can be found.

Wildlife monitoring is of fundamental importance to establish baseline information, measure population changes, and extinction risk. Motion‐triggered camera traps are an increasingly popular tool for monitoring terrestrial species over large landscapes. Over the years, occupancy has become a robust and unbiased state variable to monitor species worldwide. However, the optimal sampling design required for robust estimations of occupancy is lacking for many species. Here, we estimated the optimum sampling design by varying the number of sites (50–400) and sampling days (10–25) for a range of mammal species using camera‐trap survey data from central India. We used power analysis and mean‐squared error and evaluated the hypothesis of how various species‐specific traits influence occupancy and detectability of the species. We found that mean‐squared error changed significantly with the number of sampling sites for rare species, whereas for species with moderate and high detection probability, the mean‐squared error changed significantly with the number of sampling occasions. Power increased with an increase in the number of sampling sites and occasions for all species, although the change was not significant for species with higher occupancies or detection probabilities. We found that body size was positively related to occupancy but did not influence detection probability significantly. No relationship was detected with social status or diet on occupancy or detection probability. Our results suggest a minimum of 50 sites for 15–20 d for common species and 100 sites for 20–30 d for rare, elusive species. Our results provide guidelines to managers and practitioners for effective allocation of cost and sampling effort for a wide variety of terrestrial mammals in camera‐trap surveys.

Camera trap surveys are useful to understand animal species population trends, distribution, habitat preference, behavior, community dynamics, periods of activity, and species associations with environmental conditions. This information is ecologically important, because many species play important roles in local ecosystems as predators, herbivores, seed dispersers, and disease vectors. Additionally, many of the larger wildlife species detected by camera traps are economically important through hunting, trapping, or ecotourism. Here we present a data set of camera‐trap surveys from 6,043 locations across all 100 counties of North Carolina, USA from 2009 to 2019. These data come from 26 survey initiatives and contain 215,108 records of 36 mammal species and three species of terrestrial birds. This large data set increases the geographical distribution data for these 39 mammal and bird species by >500% over what is available for North Carolina in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). These data can be used to conduct inquiries about species, populations, communities, or ecosystems, and to produce useful information on wildlife behavior, distribution, and interactions. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this paper when using the data for publication.

Citizen science projects that use sensors (such as camera traps) to collect data can collect large-scale data without compromising information quality. However, project management challenges are increased when data collection is scaled up. Here, we provide an overview of our efforts to conduct a large-scale citizen science project using camera traps-North Carolina's Candid Critters. We worked with 63 public libraries to distribute camera traps to volunteers in all 100 counties in North Carolina, USA. Candid Critters engaged 580 volunteers to deploy cameras at 4,295 locations across private and public lands, collecting 120,671 wildlife records and 2.2 million photographs. We provide eight key suggestions for overcoming challenges in study design, volunteer recruitment and management, equipment distribution, outreach, training, and data management. We found that citizen science was a successful and economical method for collecting large-scale wildlife records, and the use of sensors allowed for inspectable quality and streamlined acquisition. In three years, we collected roughly five times the number of verified mammal records than were previously available in North Carolina, and completed the work for less than the typical cost of collecting data with field assistants. The project also yielded many positive outcomes for adult and youth volunteers. Although citizen science presents many challenges, we hope that sharing our experiences will provide useful insight for those hoping to use sensors for citizen science over large scales.