Date of Award

Summer 8-1-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Biology

First Advisor

Aaron Gooley

Second Advisor

Rusty Gonser

Third Advisor

Scott Bergeson

Abstract

Understanding species occupancy is necessary to inform wildlife management and conservation decisions. To minimize the invasiveness of occupancy studies, some wildlife researchers have deployed game cameras to detect the presence of small vertebrates instead of utilizing stressful traditional live-capture methods. The Adapted Hunt Drift Fence Technique (AHDriFT) is an increasingly popular method for modifying and deploying camera traps to detect small vertebrates; however, no studies have directly compared AHDriFT to traditional pitfall traps operating at the exact same time, even though both are deployed along drift fences to capture small vertebrates. I compared these two methods (pitfall trapping and AHDriFT camera trapping) for surveying vertebrate diversity by deploying them simultaneously at Kieweg Woods, West Terre Haute, IN. Between October 2024 and August 2025, I deployed 6 Y-shaped AHDriFT arrays (3 camera traps) paired with 6 Y-shaped pitfall trap arrays and collected 331.3 array-nights of pitfall and 303 array-nights of camera trap data from nights when pitfalls were open. I also analyzed an additional 1,157.3 array-nights from AHDriFT when pitfalls were closed and assessed cost, time, and predator attendance at both types of traps. During the direct comparison, pitfalls performed better than AHDriFT for capturing amphibians, while AHDriFT captured more mammal, reptile, and bird species. Pitfalls were frequented twice as often by potential predators than AHDriFT and were much more costly per unique observation. The results of this study will add to the growing body of literature about camera trap effectiveness for detecting small vertebrates compared to more invasive methods and will help inform decisions for wildlife monitoring protocols in the future.

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