Assessment of three methods for estimating abundance of ungulate populations

Abstract

The accuracy of three methods (pellet group count, inverse line transect method and track count) for estimating the density of ungulate population was assessed, based on a wapiti population with the known size in the enclosure of 500 hm² on Tonghe Hunting Farm, Heilongjiang province, China, during 1992–1993. The estimation of population density using the pellet group count method was the closest to the actual value, whereas the density of the wapiti population was underestimated by the inverse line transect method and overestimated by the track count method. No significant difference existed between the estimated and actual values for the pellet group method and the inverse line transect method, but the significant difference was found for the track count method. Therefore, it is suggested that the pellet group method should be given the priority in the survey of ungulate population abundance in practice.

Keywords

Ungulate / Pellet group count / Inverse line transect method / Track count

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