Comparative evaluation of funnel, box, and camera traps for reptile and amphibian inventory

Species inventories provide baseline knowledge to inform land management decisions, especially for cryptic species like reptiles and amphibians. Traditionally, funnel and box traps positioned along drift‐fence arrays have been used to survey herpetofauna. To evaluate differences in performance between funnel traps, box traps, and Adapted‐Hunt Drift Fence Technique (AHDriFT) style camera traps, we operated traps in various combinations composed of standard arrays (funnels + box), hybrid arrays (funnels + camera), and camera arrays (cameras only) at 5 study sites in Florida, USA, between August 2023 and May 2025. We found that funnel and camera traps had complementary strengths, with funnels capturing small species that cameras failed to detect (including 362% more frog species and 68% more lizard species per array), whereas cameras detected species too large to enter funnel traps, as well as rarer species that visited when funnel traps were closed. Hybrid and standard arrays performed similarly overall, but the hybrid design was more effective for detection of turtles, with central cameras increasing turtle species detections by 300%. Finally, we determined that placement of camera traps at array centers in addition to the ends of array arms maximizes species detections at camera arrays. However, an average of 88.3% of species may still be detected without a center camera. We suggest that the hybrid array design is best suited for general herpetofaunal inventory, but that different combinations of trap types may be preferred for surveys with narrower targets.