Data for: Same place, different time: Leopards employ temporal partitioning as a co-existence mechanism in a human-dominated, unprotected agricultural landscape in Sri Lanka

Published Aug 04, 2026 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.2bvq83c5v

Data files

Aug 04, 2026 version files 67.04 KB

README.md

3.16 KB
Repository_Data_for_PONE-D-25-54311.xlsx

63.88 KB

Abstract

This dataset contains the complete remote camera information inclusive of locations and all affiliated quantitative factors relevant to the survey as well as the site utilization analysis. It also contains a complete list of the leopard observations compiled during this survey inclusive of the individual ID, flank photo-captured and how it was used during the study. The dataset also contains all of the leopard observation times from Wilpattu National Park (WNP), Gal Oya National Park (GONP) and the tea estate landscape of the Central Highlands that were used for the Activity times analysis.

Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.2bvq83c5v

Description of the data and file structure

The excel file "Repository Data for PONE-D-25-54311" includes 3 excel tabs which includes all of the information necessary for estimating leopard density in the study area using "secr" in R, the site utilization analysis which employed Generalized Linear Models (GLMs), and the activity time comparison between sites using "overlap" in R.

Files and variables

File: Repository_Data_for_PONE-D-25-54311.xlsx

Description: The first tab is titled "Remote camera full data" and includes details of all of the remote camera locations that were utilized during the study. This includes the remote camera site ID ("ID_secr" column), the number of nights each camera was active, the number of humans and other relevant wildlife captured on each remote camera and the relative abundance index (RAI) of each (RAI = (# captured individuals/# remote camera 24 hour periods)*100). The type of trail on which the camera was set is also described ("Trail" column). The dataset also includes the empirical data which characterize each site for each of the factors investigated during the study (i.e. elevation (masl), distance (m) to nearest road/human settlement/PA/forest patch). Details of Methodology are included within the affiliated manuscript. The spatial coordinates of each camera are not included as the leopard is a threatened species in Sri Lanka and therefore protected by law, making exact locations observations carefully controlled by the Department of Wildlife Conservation.

The second tab is titled "Leopard obs - tea estate lands" and includes all leopard observations (column "#") during the course of the remote camera study, inclusive of the leopard ID/Sex/Age, the camera ID ("Camera Trap ID"), date and time of each photo-capture, the flank of the individual leopard photographed, whether the ID of the individual was confirmed, and whether that observation was utilized for the secr analysis.

The third tab is entitled "Activity times - WNP-GONP-tea" and includes all of the leopard observations that were used for the activity time comparisons in the study. WNP stands for Wilpattu National Park ("Wilpattu" in the "Study_area" column), GONP stands for Gal Oya National Park ("GalOyaNP"), and "tea" stands for the unprotected tea estate landscape that was the main focus of this study ("Peak" in the "Study_area" column). The dates and times are clearly indicated, and the times have even been transformed into the standardized format (radians - "Time_stand" column) necessary for analysis in "overlap" in R.

Variables

The variables are clearly detailed above

Code/software

Data analysis was conducted in R using standard functions described in the affiliated manuscript. R package "secr" was used for the leopard density analysis and package "overlap" was used for the activity times comparisons.