Hi Sal,
Hope these papers will be useful.
1) "ASSESSMENT OF CENSUS TECHNIQUES FOR ESTIMATING DENSITY AND
BIOMASS OF GIBBONS (PRIMATES: HYLOBATIDAE) by Vincent Nijman and Steph B. J. Menken:
2) Buckland , S T , Plumptre , A J , Thomas , L & Rexstad , E A 2010 , ' Design and analysis of line transect surveys for primates ' International Journal of Primatology , vol 31 , no. 5 , pp. 833-847 .
I think call counts is the best method for population estimation of primates.
Hi!
Clutton-Brock TH, Harvey PH (1977) Primate ecology and social organisation. J Zool 183:1-39
is a standard classical paper regarding primate social organization.
Also check out:
Setchell JM, Curtis DJ, (eds) (2003) Field and laboratory methods in primatology: a practical guide. University Press, Cambridge
Best regards,
Dagmar
Maybe you could use site-occupancy models.
You can check out the paper attached.
Regards,
Jose
Salvador, it really depends on what species. And it also depends on whether you need a census (actual count of individuals) or a comparative index (using a method that correlates to population numbers).
Counting nests would be a way to index chimpanzees, for instance. Counting vocalizations would be a way to index gibbons and howler monkeys.
Salvador, we have had some success with infrared cameras to count deer and sandhill cranes. For the cranes, we used aerial photography and we think it was very accurate. For the deer, we took pictures from roadways which would have been less accurate, but still produced usable estimates of population densities.
Forest mammals can be tricky, but there is a fair bit of good work done with forest carnivores using distance sampling to estimate population size from feces that is likely relevant. Also see the classic Buckland et al book "Distance Sampling: Estimating Abundance of Biological Populations". Outside of that, occupancy modeling might work well, especially if you have rather low densities or patchy distribution. We have a couple of papers with full text on my page that might be helpful in at least thinking about your problem too - see the "collaborative approach" paper and maybe the "detection probability" paper. Hope they help a bit.
Good luck!
Jason
Well distance based estimates are reliable, but most often we tend to miss the actual group size or the centre of the group for primates. Compensating for height as well as distance can be tricky too.
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Ecology