Hello everyone
I am intending to research habitat suitability analysis for Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) in one of the national park of Nepal. I am going to use the tiger presence points from the recent tiger survey 2018. The camera trapping method was used in a grid of 2*2km.
I have to conduct a prey species survey myself in the field. I am planning to divide the whole area in a grid of 2*2km and used a line transect method in the grid with a minimum distance of 1-2km depending on the topography. Under this method, I am going to record the GPS point for those prey species that we encounter. Let's assume that I come up with the following data:
1) Barking deer has 10 presence points
2) Hog deer-10
3) Sambar-20
4) Wild Boar-18
5)Spotted deer-20
6) Gaur-8
So my concern here is how can I use this data to calculate point density knowing the fact that the species vary in size. Is there any standardized method for prey species? Based on my personal communication with a wildlife expert, he suggested that While calculating prey density, the presence point for small prey (Spotted deer, Wild boar, Hog deer, Barking deer) counted as one individual; two individuals were counted in Sambar deer‘s presence point, three individuals were counted in the presence point of Gaur. This was done to avoid the biasness as the animal with big size such as Gaur is assumed to be the three sizes for small animals such as spotted deer.
Does anyone here have an idea about this issue?
Thank you in advance for your help.
Hello;
After recording the species data (prey and predator), you can overlay this data in the topographic class of the study area in ArcGIS, then determine and compare the species density in each class. Also, predict habitat suitability.
Hello Kamal,
In a relatively recent work, we used a four step procedure to incorporate the impact of prey species on habitat suitability of two carnivores (grey wolf and golden jackal): 1-using occurrence locations of each prey species, we produced prey-specific habitat suitability maps, 2- we prepared a continuous prey density map based on the available data for each prey species, 3- each prey density map was multiplied by the corresponding habitat suitability map to produce prey availability maps, 4- the prey availability maps were weighted according to the frequency of prey in the diet of the predators; please see:
Article Contrasting use of habitat, landscape elements, and corridor...
We performed a simultaneous study on the diet of the tow canids, but you might be able to use the results of published studies for obtaining the share of each prey species in the diet of your study species. More research using this procedure will be coming in the near future.
I hope this can be helpful
Mahmoud
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