N-mixture models with camera trap imagery produce accurate abundance estimates of ungulates.

Autor: Harris GM; United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Albuquerque, NM, USA. grant_harris@fws.gov., Stewart DR; United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Albuquerque, NM, USA., Butler MJ; United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Albuquerque, NM, USA., Rominger EM; New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (Retired), Santa Fe, NM, USA., Ruhl CQ; New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, Santa Fe, NM, USA., McDonald DT; United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Indiahoma, OK, USA., Schmidt PM; United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Tulsa, OK, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Scientific reports [Sci Rep] 2024 Dec 28; Vol. 14 (1), pp. 31421. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Dec 28.
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-83011-4
Abstrakt: Abundance estimates inform ungulate management and recovery efforts. Yet effective and affordable estimation techniques remain absent for most ungulates lacking identifiable marks and inhabiting rugged or highly vegetated terrain. Methods using N-mixture models with camera trap imagery form an appealing solution but remain unvalidated. We assess this method using populations of desert bighorn sheep (DBS; Ovis canadensis) in New Mexico, USA, plus bison (Bison bison bison) and Texas longhorn cattle (Bos taurus taurus) in Oklahoma, USA, by calculating and comparing abundance estimates to censused values. We parsed data by 3 and 7-day intervals, using images filtered or unfiltered, and collected with motion detection or timed camera settings. We employed priors informed by subject matter experts (SME) and calculated using detection-nondetection methods. Abundance estimates from filtered images captured by motion detection in 3-day intervals included the censused value across all seasons for adult DBS, rams and ewes, indicating "best practices". This "best practices" method also captured censused values for population estimates of bison (detection-nondetection) and cattle with both priors. Our assessment validates the use of N-mixture with camera trap imagery, while presenting sampling approaches, data handling procedures and model calibration to estimate wildlife population sizes more appropriately and accurately.
Competing Interests: Declarations. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.
(© 2024. This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz: