Distance sampling agoutis in transects and unpaved roads

What is it about?

Transect sampling is a widely used method to estimate population parameters such as abundance and density, which are needed for wildlife management and conservation purposes. Here we demonstrate that agoutis, an important seed disperser, behave and are distributed differently in unpaved roads compared to true transects. We shown that these differences have implications in the estimation of the mentioned parameters.

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Why is it important?

Sampling animal populations in tropical forests frequently faces time, logistical and even financial limitations related to cutting transects for the specific purpose of sampling. Given this, researchers and reserve managers might end up using pre-existing unpaved roads as alternatives. We demonstrated that sampling agoutis in unpaved roads produces estimates that, although comparable to true transects, are tricky to model and more prone to bias. Further, agoutis behaved differently in unpaved roads in comparison to transects, something that has not been appreciated previously. Since behavior affects detection, a key issue in Distance sampling, population estimates from unpaved roads should not be comparable to those derived from transects.

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