The non-invasive procedure of documenting wildlife species is being promoted for animal welfare and lessen human effort without compromising data and information quality. Is there any field research that suggests the use and efficiency of thermal imaging (i.e. FLIR) in estimating species population, especially bats? Thanks!
I know that it has been used from an aerial platform for deer counts and crane counts for years. Private communications have indicated that it is far better than visual count methods for these applications.
I know there was some work done with deer in Arkansas. I am pretty sure that Tappe was an author. If I remember correctly comparison with spotlight counts using distance sampling suggested similar population estimates between FLIR and spotlights but variance was much reduced with FLIR due to increased detections.
We have used thermal bats exiting caves, but have not attempted to estimate population size. We have also used thermal to locate evening bat colonies in trees.
There has also been some work in Tennessee. I suggest contacting Dr. Robert Kissell. [email protected]
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