Wildlife use of an artificial water trough in a rehabilitating mining landscape in central Mexico

Abstract

Water availability can limit wildlife in seasonally dry ecosystems, particularly in landscapes disturbed by extractive activities. Artificial water sources may provide a supplementary resource during ecological rehabilitation. We evaluated wildlife use of an artificial water trough installed in a disturbed tropical dry forest at the Tepetzingo Plant, Morelos, Mexico. We monitored wildlife visitation for approximately 17 months using up to three camera traps positioned around the trough, treated as a single station. Over 501 trap-days, we obtained 1,495 independent vertebrate records, or 3.0 records per trap-day; 84.9% (1,270/1,495) were wildlife. We recorded 64 wild vertebrate species: one amphibian, five reptiles, 46 birds, and 12 mammals. Thirteen species were endemic to Mexico, and six were listed in risk categories under NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010. A negative binomial model detected differences in wildlife visitation among the five operational periods, with the highest rate during the warm-dry period of 2025. Birds accounted for 73.5% (933/1,270) of wildlife records, mammals for 23.3% (296/1,270), reptiles for 3.1% (40/1,270), and amphibians for 0.1% (1/1,270). Wild mammals were predominantly nocturnal, whereas birds and reptiles were mainly diurnal. Domestic dogs, cattle, and cats also used the trough. These findings document recurrent wildlife use of a low-cost artificial water source in a rehabilitating mining landscape. However, the single-site design and absence of pre-installation monitoring or a control site prevent causal attribution of the observed richness and visitation patterns to the trough.