Incorporating the sampling effectiveness of detection dogs in the faecal standing crop method

• Published in: European journal of wildlife research Vol. 66; no. 4; p. 47
• Main Authors: Da Silva, Amanda R., De Oliveira, Márcio L., Duarte, José M. B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.08.2020; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: biomass; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Counting; Defecation; dogs; Ecology; Estimates; Experiments; Feces; Fish & Wildlife Biology & Management; Life Sciences; Methods; Methods Paper; Parameter estimation; Population density; Population status; Rare species; Reforestation; Regression analysis; Sampling; Sniffer dogs; Standing crop; Wildlife; Wildlife conservation; Wildlife management; Zoology; Elusive species; Deer; Faeces; Density estimates
• DOI: 10.1007/s10344-020-01388-9
• ISSN: 1612-4642

Evaluating the population status of elusive and rare species is a challenge for wildlife managers and conservationists. A promising method that has been used is faecal pellet counting applied to the faecal standing crop (FSC) method. The FSC method estimates population density based on faecal pellets counted in a given area by using parameters such as defecation rate and faecal persistence, which vary according to the environment. The search for faeces has become more effective with the help of scat detection dogs, which have a better detection rate compared to humans. Therefore, we aimed to incorporate the sampling effectiveness of scat detection dogs as parameters in FSC methods. For this purpose, two experiments were conducted to evaluate the detectability of Mazama faeces related to their distance from a search transect and their age (time since deposition). Our results show that incorporating scat detection dog parameters can result in density estimates three times higher than those reached without incorporating the detection dog parameters in FSC methods.