Abstract
Population size and trends of large carnivores are difficult to determine, but are
often needed to inform conservation actions. Direct counts maintained over long
time periods are extremely difficult to achieve. Indices of population sizes can be
used to estimate large carnivore abundances, but are often case-, species- and sitespecific.
Here, we test the general applicability of track-based indices to estimate
large carnivore abundance. We surveyed 15 306.4km of roads associated with 339
transects across a wide geographical scale, large range of densities and variable
substrates for tracks of African large carnivores. A combined model for all
carnivore species on sandy soils serves as a robust approach to predict large
carnivore densities. Thus, indices based on track counts can provide useful
estimates of carnivore abundance. We found consistent relationships between
track densities and the actual carnivore densities, having taken account of
substrate.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:tut/oai:encore.tut.ac.za:d1001438 |
| Date | 31 July 2009 |
| Creators | Funston, PJ, Frank, L, Stephens, T, Davidson, Z, Loveridge, A, Macdonald, DM, Durant, S, Packer, C, Mosser, A, Ferreira, SM |
| Contributors | Kitchener, A |
| Publisher | Journal of Zoology |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | |
| Rights | c 2010 The Zoological Society of London |
| Relation | The Zoological Society of London |
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