Camera Traps and Wildlife Populations
How can we estimate the number of wild animals in an area? One solution currently gaining attention in the conservation biology world is through the use of camera traps, which are small cameras that can passively take images in remote areas over many months. This project focuses on a well-studied population of white-tailed deer in Sandhill Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin, and aims to assess different field and statistical methods in their efficacy for correctly estimating the size of a known animal population.
Overview
Knowledge of species abundance and density is essential for conservation and management of wildlife populations. Capture-recapture methods, in which individuals are caught, marked, released, and recaptured (or resighted) are commonly used and can provide robust abundance estimates, but these methods are also expensive, time consuming, invasive, and difficult to employ over large spatial areas. This research takes advantage of camera traps, a passive, inexpensive method for wild detecting animals over large spatial areas. A large challenge with camera trap data is that many animals lack natural, individually-identifiable markings, making counting individual animals in images challenging. This research is focused on testing and developing statistical methods aimed to overcome this challenge and estimate abundance of unmarked animals using camera trap data.
Findings so far
This project is currently in the publication and analysis phase, so check back soon for updates!