R code and data supporting: Cattle exclusion increases encounters of wild herbivores in Neotropical forests

Abstract

This repository contains R code and data supporting: Cattle exclusion increases encounters of wild herbivores in Neotropical forests. This study implements a BACI experimental sampling design to quantify the effect of cattle exclusion on encounter probability of the native community of browsers and fruit consumers, and percent ground cover in multifunctional landscapes of the Colombian Orinoquía. Wildlife-permeable fences were built along forest edges in four forest patches (i.e., blocks) containing control and fenced (treatment) sites. We installed 33 camera traps to obtain information about wildlife and cattle encounter probabilities, before and after the fences were constructed. We fit Bayesian generalized linear mixed effects models to quantify the effect of fences via the interaction between the time period (before and after the fences were built) and treatment (control or fenced sites).