Journal
GLOBAL ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION
Volume 15, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.gecco.2018.e00411
Keywords
Bayesian estimation; Camera trap surveys; Cost-effectiveness; Non-invasive genetic sampling; Pekania pennanti; Population monitoring; Wildlife conservation
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Funding
- InnoTech Alberta grants
- Government of Alberta (Environment and Parks)
- Beaver Hills Initiative
- Alberta Conservation Association
- NSERC (Canada)
- Royal Canadian Geographic Society
- TD Friends of the Environment Foundation
- Fur Institute of Canada scholarships
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Density estimation is integral to the effective conservation and management of wildlife. Camera traps in conjunction with spatial capture-recapture (SCR) models have been used to accurately and precisely estimate densities of marked wildlife populations comprising identifiable individuals. The emergence of spatial count (SC) models holds promise for cost-effective density estimation of unmarked wildlife populations when individuals are not identifiable. We evaluated model agreement, precision, and survey costs, between i) a fully marked approach using SCR models fit using non-invasive genetic data, and ii) an unmarked approach using SC models fit using camera trap data, for a recovering population of the mesocarnivore fisher (Pekania pennanti). The SCR density estimates ranged from 2.95 to 3.42 (2.18-5.19 95% BCI) fishers 100 km(-2). The SC density estimates were influenced by their priors, ranging from 0.95 (0.65-2.95 95% BCI) fishers 100 km(-2) for the uninformative model to 3.60 (2.01-7.55 95% BCI) fishers 100 km(-2) for the model informed by prior knowledge of a 16 km(2) fisher home range. We caution against using strongly informative priors but instead recommend using a range of unweighted prior knowledge. Thin detection data was problematic for both SCR and SC models, potentially producing biased low estimates. The total cost of the genetic survey ($47 610) was two-thirds of the camera trap survey ($77 080), or comparable ($75 746) if genetic sampling effort was increased to include sex and trap-behaviour covariates in SCR models. Density estimation of unmarked populations continues to be a series of trade-offs but as methods improve and integrate, so will our estimates. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.
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