Journal Article

Abundance of rare and elusive species: Empirical investigation of closed versus spatially explicit capture-recapture models with lynx as a case study

Blanc, Laetitia, Gatti, Sylvain, Marboutin, Eric, Gimenez, Olivier

2013

Overview

Effective conservation and management require reliable monitoring methods and estimates of abundance to prioritize human and financial investments. Camera trapping is a non-invasive sampling method allowing the use of capture—recapture (CR) models to estimate abundance while accounting for the difficulty of detecting individuals in the wild. We investigated the relative performance of standard closed CR models and spatially explicit CR models (SECR) that incorporate spatial information in the data. Using simulations, we considered 4 scenarios comparing low versus high detection probability and small versus large populations and contrasted abundance estimates obtained from both approaches. Standard CR and SECR models both provided minimally biased abundance estimates, but precision was improved when using SECR models. The associated confidence intervals also provided better coverage than their non-spatial counterpart. We concluded SECR models exhibit better statistical performance than standard closed CR models and allow for sound management strategies based on density maps of activity centers. To illustrate the comparison, we considered the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) as a case study that provided the first abundance estimates of a local population in France.

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc,Wiley Subscription Services,Wildlife Society,Blackwell Publishing Ltd,Wiley
• Subject: Abundance / Animal populations / Animal traps / Animal, plant and microbial ecology / Applied ecology / Biological and medical sciences / camera trapping / capture-recapture models / Capture-recapture studies / Case studies / Confidence intervals / Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife / Density estimation / Environmental Sciences / Estimates / Financial management / Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology / General aspects / Habitat conservation / Local population / Lynx / Lynx lynx / Mammalia / Modeling / Monitoring methods / Population ecology / Population estimates / Population studies / Rare species / relative bias / root mean square error / Simulations / Spatial data / Spatial models / spatially explicit / Statistical analysis / Statistical models / Vertebrates: general zoology, morphology, phylogeny, systematics, cytogenetics, geographical distribution / Wildcats / Wildlife / Wildlife conservation / Wildlife management