Estimating disease survey intensity and wildlife population size from the density of survey devices: leg-hold traps and the brushtail possum

Publication date: Available online 20 September 2018Source: Preventive Veterinary MedicineAuthor(s): Peter Sweetapple, Graham NugentAbstractWildlife disease surveillance requires accurate information on the proportion of managed populations sampled or their population density, parameters that are typically expensive to measure. However, these parameters can be estimated using spatially explicit modelling of capture probabilities, based on the distribution and deployment times of capture devices, given accurate information on the relationships between these variables. This approach is used in New Zealand’s surveillance programme aimed at confirming areas free of bovine tuberculosis (bTB1) in brushtail possums (Trichosurus vulpecula). However, there is uncertainty about the accuracy of the underpinning parameters characterizing possum trappability (g), given the distance between where a trap is placed and the possum home range centre. Sampling intensity (SI: the percentage of the population sampled during a population survey) and sigma (σ; 95% home range radius/2.45) were measured, using leg-hold traps deployed under a set protocol to standardize survey effort, at four sites containing previously radio- and GPS-collared individuals. Those data were used to derive an estimate of the nightly probability of capture of possums in a trap set at their home range centre (g0). Those estimates were compared to the standard assumptions currently used as defaults in the day-to-day appr...
Source: Preventive Veterinary Medicine - Category: Veterinary Research Source Type: research