Herbivore Census

Techniques
How to Skills Session - I
 Wildlife Census
● Need information on the numbers of animals for research, management and

conservation

● Information can be: total numbers, size and structure and distribution and

movements

● How do we get such information then?

● 1st point to clearly know what the objectives of the census are.
Other factors to consider:

● resources

● size of area

● vegetation

● relief

● target species

● Decision making on method should include the following aspects:

 Ground based census techniques

● Census team travel along a predetermined transect

● Stratification – transects to cover various habitats in study area

● Driving speed is important (30 km/hr)

● Animals cited are recorded by spp. and group size, structure

● Sighting distance & sighting angle in relation to travel direction

 Road counts: what the method entails
● Transect are traversed on foot, horseback, bike or vehicle

● Transect is searched, each animal seen provides one

measurement of perpendicular distance to the transect

● Animals are not seen often along the transect

Distance sampling techniques
● Estimating populations based

on line transects-ground based

technique

● Observer moves along a

transect, dots are individual

animals

● Arrows are distances from the

transect

● Most animals are not detected

 Representation of field recordings

● Record the following

1. Sighting distance (ri)

2. Sighting angle (θi)

3. Perpendicular distance (xi)

 Animal sighting

Transect
 Detectability
● In practice animals are not

always detected

● Weakness of a fixed strip

width

● Under-estimation occurs

● Detectability will fall off with

distance from the transect

● Shaded area shows the

detection function for wildlife

populations
 Basic assumptions

1. Animal directly on the transect will never be missed (detection probability = 1)

2. Animals are fixed at the initial sighting position- they do not move before being detected,

none are count twice

3. Distances and angles are measured exactly – no measurement error, rounding errors

4. Sighting of individual animals are independent events

 Density calculation
If the assumptions are met, then simple density estimation is :
density =

Where n = Number of animals seen on transect

L = Total length of transect
a = Half the effective strip width (a constant)
The problem is estimating the transect width
✔ Constant- total area under detection function
Herbivore Census
Techniques
How to Skills Session- II
 Practical – Distance software

● Distance software - GUI

● Create a project

● Import data

● Run project

● Extract results
 Distance Software
● Download distance software: https://distancesampling.org/
● Here we using a graphic user interface (GUI), for more details, take
time to explore the links below:
○ https://synergy.st-andrews.ac.uk/ds-manda/
○ https://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/insects/kbb/pdf/KBBDist
anceSamplingGuide11June2008.pdf
 Arranging data in excel
● There is one column for each of:

o stratum name,

o stratum area,

o transect name,

o transect length,

o distance (perpendicular distance () and

o cluster size
 Extracting & Reporting

● For an example of how such results are extracted & used, see
the link below:
○ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t7ZabGbWGIMKQfZrrb0yKmKu8zFkW
pA6/view?usp=sharing
○ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I2IJDrtdOBBghdr5o5loZc7I9hu3XATc/vi
ew?usp=sharing
○
 Common pitfalls
● Warning: Size bias adjustment has increased expected cluster size
○ large clusters are more likely to be seen at large distances than small
clusters;

○ the average of detected clusters is likely larger than the average size of
clusters in the population “Size bias problem”

○ Meaning: adjusted estimate is larger that the observed average cluster size
(estimate of the “expected cluster size”)
Reporting Format
Probability of detection

The relative frequency that

observed groups were within the

stated distances from the transect

line (histograms) and the fitted

detection functions (bold lines) for

the nine commonest species of

large mammal
Data Representation
Alternative Reporting/Representation