Monitoring local occupancy and the regional distribution of wild mammals is essential to guide species management and set conservation priorities. However, variables such as weather, substrate hardness, or habitat characteristics may indirectly affect the performance of the methods employed for monitoring mammal occurrence. Little information exists about the influence of spatio‐temporal factors on the performance of survey methods and its implications for mammal monitoring. Using data from a heterogeneous region in the Guadiamar River basin, SW Spain, which encompass forest, agricultural, and mosaic landscapes, we (1) explore whether four widely used detection methods, namely camera traps, scent stations, track surveys, and scat surveys, differ in efficiency; (2) test the hypothesis that spatio‐temporal factors do not affect method efficiency; and (3) examine the effect of landscape on the replication effort needed to detect target species. After controlling for variation in mammal occurrence across space and over time, the interaction between spatio‐temporal factors and detection methods was not significant. Likewise, we found a negligible influence of landscape type on the replication effort needed to detect species actually present. When compared to camera traps, scent stations, and scat surveys, track surveys were the most efficient and fastest methodology for surveying mammals in our study landscapes. Monitoring programs of mammal occurrence are often applied to broad and heterogeneous regions and/or during extended periods. Therefore, survey methods should describe not only spatio‐temporal variation in mammal abundance or activity but also maintain high detection efficiency in a variety of environmental conditions. The detection efficiency of each survey method changed little regardless of considerable environmental variation, making more reliable the marked differences between methods in their ability to detect target species. We recommend accounting for the effect of spatio‐temporal factors as potential sources of variation in order to test whether our results can be generalized and to increase the quality of large‐scale monitoring of mammal occurrence.

中文翻译：

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地中海环境中不同环境条件下哺乳动物检测方法的均匀性能

监测野生哺乳动物的本地占有率和区域分布对于指导物种管理和确定保护重点至关重要。但是，诸如天气，基质硬度或栖息地特征之类的变量可能会间接影响用于监测哺乳动物发生的方法的性能。关于时空因素对调查方法的影响及其对哺乳动物监测的影响的信息很少。我们使用西班牙西南部瓜迪亚马河流域的一个异质区域的数据（包括森林，农业和马赛克景观），来研究（1）是否使用四种广泛使用的检测方法，即照相机陷阱，气味站，径迹调查和粪便调查，效率不同；（2）检验时空因素不影响方法效率的假设；（3）研究景观对检测目标物种所需的复制工作的影响。在控制了跨空间和随时间变化的哺乳动物发生率的变化后，时空因素与检测方法之间的相互作用并不显着。同样，我们发现景观类型对检测实际存在的物种所需的复制工作影响可忽略不计。与照相机陷阱，气味站和粪便调查相比，跟踪调查是在我们研究环境中调查哺乳动物的最有效，最快的方法。哺乳动物发生情况的监测程序通常应用于广阔而异质的地区和/或延长的时期。所以，调查方法不仅应描述哺乳动物数量或活动的时空变化，而且还应在各种环境条件下保持较高的检测效率。不管环境如何变化，每种调查方法的检测效率几乎不变，这使得方法之间检测目标物种的能力之间的显着差异更加可靠。我们建议考虑时空因素的影响作为潜在的变异源，以检验我们的结果是否可以推广，并提高对哺乳动物发生情况的大规模监测的质量。使方法之间在检测目标物种的能力上的显着差异更加可靠。我们建议考虑时空因素的影响作为潜在的变异源，以检验我们的结果是否可以推广，并提高对哺乳动物发生情况的大规模监测的质量。使方法之间在检测目标物种的能力上的显着差异更加可靠。我们建议考虑时空因素的影响作为潜在的变异源，以检验我们的结果是否可以推广，并提高对哺乳动物发生情况的大规模监测的质量。