Wildlife management is about finding the balance between conservation of endangered species and mitigating the impacts of overabundant wildlife on humans and the environment. This book deals with the monitoring of fauna, related diseases, and interactions with humans. It is intended to assist and support the professional worker in wildlife management.
In the face of so many unprecedented changes in our environment, the pressure is on scientists to lead the way toward a more sustainable future. Written by a team of ecologists, Monitoring Animal Populations and Their Habitats: A Practitioner’s Guide provides a framework that natural resource managers and researchers can use to design monitoring programs that will benefit future generations by distilling the information needed to make informed decisions. In addition, this text is valuable for undergraduate- and graduate-level courses that are focused on monitoring animal populations. With the aid of more than 90 illustrations and a four-page color insert, this book offers practical guidance for the entire monitoring process, from incorporating stakeholder input and data collection, to data management, analysis, and reporting. It establishes the basis for why, what, how, where, and when monitoring should be conducted; describes how to analyze and interpret the data; explains how to budget for monitoring efforts; and discusses how to assemble reports of use in decision-making. The book takes a multi-scaled and multi-taxa approach, focusing on monitoring vertebrate populations and upland habitats, but the recommendations and suggestions presented are applicable to a variety of monitoring programs. Lastly, the book explores the future of monitoring techniques, enabling researchers to better plan for the future of wildlife populations and their habitats. Monitoring Animal Populations and Their Habitats: A Practitioner’s Guide furthers the goal of achieving a world in which biodiversity is allowed to evolve and flourish in the face of such uncertainties as climate change, invasive species proliferation, land use expansion, and population growth.
Monitoring Plant and Animal Populations offers an overviewof population monitoring issues that is accessible to the typicalfield biologist and land managers with a modest statisticalbackground. The text includes concrete guidelines for ecologists tofollow to design a statistically defensible monitoringprogram. User-friendly, practical guide, written in a highly readableformat. The authors provide an interdisciplinary scope to address thecurrent, widespread interest in monitoring in many environmentalfields, including pure and applied ecology, conservation biology,and wildlife management. Emphasizes the role of monitoring in adaptive management. Defines important terminology and contrasts monitoring withother data-collection activities. Covers the applicable principlesof sampling and shows how to design a monitoring project. Provides a step-by-step overview of the monitoring process,illustrated by flow charts and references. The authors also offerguidelines for analyzing and interpreting monitoring data. Illustrates the foundation of management objectives anddescribes their components, types, and development. Describes common field techniques for measuring importantattributes of animal and plant populations. Reviews different methods for recording monitoring data in thefield, managing the data, and communicating data to policymakers.
Analysis and Management of Animal Populations deals with the processes involved in making informed decisions about the management of animal populations. It covers the modeling of population responses to management actions, the estimation of quantities needed in the modeling effort, and the application of these estimates and models to the development of sound management decisions. The book synthesizes and integrates in a single volume the methods associated with these themes, as they apply to ecological assessment and conservation of animal populations. Integrates population modeling, parameter estimation and decision-theoretic approaches to management in a single, cohesive framework Provides authoritative, state-of-the-art descriptions of quantitative approaches to modeling, estimation and decision-making Emphasizes the role of mathematical modeling in the conduct of science and management Utilizes a unifying biological context, consistent mathematical notation, and numerous biological examples
This book addresses issues of monitoring populations of tigers, ungulate prey species and habitat occupancy, with relevance to similar assessments of large mammal species and general biodiversity. It covers issues of rigorous sampling, modeling, estimation and adaptive management of animal populations using cutting-edge tools, such as camera-traps, genetic identification and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), applied under the modern statistical approach of Bayesian and likelihood-based inference. Of special focus here are animal survey data derived for use under spatial capture-recapture, occupancy, distance sampling, mixture-modeling and connectivity analysees. Because tigers are an icons of global conservation, in last five decades,enormous amounts of commitment and resources have been invested by tiger range countries and the conservation community for saving wild tigers. However, status of the big cat remains precarious. Rigorous monitoring of surviving wild tiger populations continues to be essential for both understanding and recovering wild tigers. However, many tiger monitoring programs lack the necessary rigor to generate the reliable results. While the deployment of technologies, analyses, computing power and human-resource investments in tiger monitoring have greatly progressed in the last couple of decades, a full comprehension of their correct deployment has not kept pace in practice. In this volume, Dr. Ullas Karanth and Dr. James Nichols, world leaders in tiger biology and quantitative ecology, respectively, address this key challenge. The have collaborated with an extraordinary array of 30 scientists with expertise in a range of necessary disciplines - biology and ecology of tigers, prey and habitats; advanced statistical theory and practice; computation and programming; practical field-sampling methods that employ technologies as varied as camera traps, genetic analyses and geographic information systems. The book is a 'tour de force' of cutting-edge methodologies for assessing not just tigers but also other predators and their prey. The 14 chapters here are lucidly presented in a coherent sequence to provide tiger-specific answers to fundamental questions in animal population assessment: why monitor, what to monitor and how to monitor. While highlighting robust methods, the authors also clearly point out those that are in use, but unreliable. The managerial dimension of tiger conservation described here, the task of matching monitoring objectives with skills and resources to integrate tiger conservation under an adaptive framework, also renders this volume useful to wildlife scientists as well as conservationists.
An authoritative guide to quantitative methods that will help wildlife scientists improve analysis and decision-making. Over the past fifty years, wildlife science has become increasingly quantitative. But to wildlife scientists, many of whom have not been formally trained as biometricians, computer modelers, or mathematicians, the wide array of available techniques for analyzing wildlife populations and habitats can be overwhelming. This practical book aims to help students and professionals alike understand how to use quantitative methods to inform their work in the field. Covering the most widely used contemporary approaches to the analysis of wildlife populations and habitats, Quantitative Analyses in Wildlife Science is divided into five broad areas: • general statistical methods • demographic estimation • dynamic process modeling • analysis of spatially based data on animals and resources • numerical methods Addressing a variety of topics, from population estimation and growth trend predictions to the study of migration patterns, this book presents fresh data on such pressing issues as sustainable take, control of invasives, and species reintroduction. Authored by leading researchers in wildlife science, each chapter considers the structure of data in relation to a particular analytical technique, as well as the structure of variation in those data. Providing conceptual and quantitative overviews of modern analytical methods, the techniques covered in this book also apply to conservation research and wildlife policy. Whether a quick refresher or a comprehensive introduction is called for, Quantitative Analyses in Wildlife Science is an indispensable addition to every wildlife professional's bookshelf. Contributors: William M. Block, Leonard A. Brennan, Stephen T. Buckland, Christopher C. Chizinski, Evan C. Cooch, Raymond J. Davis, Stephen J. DeMaso, Randy W. DeYoung, Jane Elith, Joseph J. Fontane, Julie A. Heinrichs, Mevin B. Hooten, Julianna M. A. Jenkins, Zachary S. Laden, Damon B. Lesmeister, Daniel Linden, Jeffrey J. Lusk, Bruce G. Marcot, David L. Miller, Michael L. Morrison, Eric Rexstad, Jamie S. Sanderlin, Joseph P. Sands, Erica F. Stuber, Chris Sutherland, Andrew N. Tri, David B. Wester, Gary C. White, Christopher K. Williams, Damon L. Williford
Monitoring is integral to all aspects of policy and management for threatened biodiversity. It is fundamental to assessing the conservation status and trends of listed species and ecological communities. Monitoring data can be used to diagnose the causes of decline, to measure management effectiveness and to report on investment. It is also a valuable public engagement tool. Yet in Australia, monitoring threatened biodiversity is not always optimally managed. Monitoring Threatened Species and Ecological Communities aims to improve the standard of monitoring for Australia's threatened biodiversity. It gathers insights from some of the most experienced managers and scientists involved with monitoring programs for threatened species and ecological communities in Australia, and evaluates current monitoring programs, establishing a baseline against which the quality of future monitoring activity can be managed. Case studies provide examples of practical pathways to improve the quality of biodiversity monitoring, and guidelines to improve future programs are proposed. This book will benefit scientists, conservation managers, policy makers and those with an interest in threatened species monitoring and management.
Information regarding population status and abundance of rare species plays a key role in resource management decisions. Ideally, data should be collected using statistically sound sampling methods, but by their very nature, rare or elusive species pose a difficult sampling challenge. Sampling Rare or Elusive Species describes the latest sampling designs and survey methods for reliably estimating occupancy, abundance, and other population parameters of rare, elusive, or otherwise hard-to-detect plants and animals. It offers a mixture of theory and application, with actual examples from terrestrial, aquatic, and marine habitats around the world. Sampling Rare or Elusive Species is the first volume devoted entirely to this topic and provides natural resource professionals with a suite of innovative approaches to gathering population status and trend data. It represents an invaluable reference for natural resource professionals around the world, including fish and wildlife biologists, ecologists, biometricians, natural resource managers, and all others whose work or research involves rare or elusive species.
This book is written to serve as a general reference for biologists and resource managers with relatively little statistical training. It focuses on both basic concepts and practical applications to provide professionals with the tools needed to assess monitoring methods that can detect trends in populations. It combines classical finite population sampling designs with population enumeration procedures in a unified approach for obtaining abundance estimates for species of interest. The statistical information is presented in practical, easy-to-understand terminology. - Presented in practical, easy-to-understand terminology - Serves as a general reference for biologists and resource managers - Provides the tools needed to detect trends in populations - Introduces a unified approach for obtaining abundance estimates
Camera trapping in wildlife management and research is a growing global phenomenon. The technology is advancing very quickly, providing unique opportunities for collecting new biological knowledge. In order for fellow camera trap researchers and managers to share their knowledge and experience, the First International Camera Trapping Colloquium in Wildlife Management and Research was held in Sydney, Australia. Camera Trapping brings together papers from a selection of the presentations at the colloquium and provides a benchmark of the international developments and uses of camera traps for monitoring wildlife for research and management. Four major themes are presented: case studies demonstrating camera trapping for monitoring; the constraints and pitfalls of camera technologies; design standards and protocols for camera trapping surveys; and the identification, management and analyses of the myriad images that derive from camera trapping studies. The final chapter provides future directions for research using camera traps. Remarkable photographs are included, showing interesting, enlightening and entertaining images of animals 'doing their thing'.
