Evaluating Detection Probabilities for American Marten in the Black Hills, South Dakota
ABSTRACT Assessing the effectiveness of monitoring techniques designed to determine presence of forest carnivores, such as American marten ( Martes Americana ), is crucial for validation of survey results. Although comparisons between techniques have been made, little attention has been paid to the...
| Published in: | Journal of Wildlife Management |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2007
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.2193/2007-091 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.2193%2F2007-091 |
| Summary: | ABSTRACT Assessing the effectiveness of monitoring techniques designed to determine presence of forest carnivores, such as American marten ( Martes Americana ), is crucial for validation of survey results. Although comparisons between techniques have been made, little attention has been paid to the issue of detection probabilities ( p ). Thus, the underlying assumption has been that detection probabilities equal 1.0. We used Presence‐Absence data obtained from a track‐plate survey in conjunction with results from a saturation‐trapping study to derive detection probabilities when marten occurred at high (>2 marten/10.2 km 2 ) and low (≤1 marten/10.2 km 2 ) densities within 8 10.2‐km 2 quadrats. Estimated probability of detecting marten in high‐density quadrats was p = 0.952 (SE = 0.047), whereas the detection probability for low‐density quadrats was considerably lower ( p = 0.333, SE = 0.136). Our results indicated that failure to account for imperfect detection could lead to an underestimation of marten presence in 15–52% of low‐density quadrats in the Black Hills, South Dakota, USA. We recommend that repeated site‐survey data be analyzed to assess detection probabilities when documenting carnivore survey results. |
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