Scat collection surveys
Scat collection took place continuously from August 2018 to June 2019 in
Vinton, Zaleski, and AEP. Scats were collected daily along trail
transects at the field sites (AEP = 64.0 km and Vinton-Zaleski = 82.8
km); transects included dirt roads, gated access roads, and hiking
trails in each study area. Transects were re-surveyed two times (three
surveys in total) during the study. Weather prevented re-surveys for a
limited number of transects (<5%) during the winter. Trained
field technicians searched for scats, collected samples, recorded GPS
locations, and tracked survey effort using Avenza Maps (Avenza Systems
Inc.). Scats were collected using a different set of latex gloves for
each sample to prevent transfer of DNA between samples and samples were
frozen at -10°C the day of collection to preserve DNA.