IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| O'Brien, T.G.O. | |
| On the use of automated cameras to estimate species richness for large-and medium-sized rainforest mammals | |
| 2008 Animal Conservation (11): 179-181 | |
The question of 'how many species occur,' whether at a study site, in a park or in a country, is of relevance to the management and conservation of biodiversity. Biodiversity is often equated with species diversity and species richness at a site (Schluter & Ricklefs, 1993; Lande, 1996). Species richness frequently is used as a state variable in evaluating the impact of management interventions or anthropogenic disturbance on biodiversity (Yoccoz, Nichols & Boulinier, 2001). As Tobler et al. (2008) correctly observe, knowledge of the presence and distribution of species is critical to planning and evaluating strategies for conservation of biodiversity. Restricting the scope of their study to inventories of terrestrial forest mammals larger than 1 kg, they discuss the use of automated camera traps to detect forest mammal species, and give an example of how to use an inventory to answer questions about species richness. They conclude with a discussion of issues related to designing species surveys. The authors used a standard survey design appropriate for estimating jaguar Panthera onca and ocelot Felis pardalis abundance to obtain records of occurrence for all species during two surveys. Using two cameras at each point allowed them to estimate the reliability of the cameras in detecting a species when it passed through the sampling point and to relate the per cent of detections to body mass of the species. They compared eight species richness estimators with a species list for their site, considered to be the 'true' number of species. Finally, they used the frequency of detection to estimate the sampling effort necessary to obtain photographic evidence of rare species at a site. I enjoyed the article and agree with much of it including the idea that a survey designed for one purpose may produce data that are useful for another. I do, however, have several concerns and observations about this study and its inferences. |
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