Sampling Rare or Elusive Species

Concepts, Designs, and Techniques for Estimating Population Parameters

edited by William L. Thompson

429 pages | 6 x 9

Information regarding population status and abundance of rare species plays a key role in resource management decisions. Ideally, data should be collected using statistically sound sampling methods, but by their very nature, rare or elusive species pose a difficult sampling challenge.

Sampling Rare or Elusive Species describes the latest sampling designs and survey methods for reliably estimating occupancy, abundance, and other population parameters of rare, elusive, or otherwise hard-to-detect plants and animals. It offers a mixture of theory and application, with actual examples from terrestrial, aquatic, and marine habitats around the world.

Sampling Rare or Elusive Species is the first volume devoted entirely to this topic and provides natural resource professionals with a suite of innovative approaches to gathering population status and trend data. It represents an invaluable reference for natural resource professionals around the world, including fish and wildlife biologists, ecologists, biometricians, natural resource managers, and all others whose work or research involves rare or elusive species.

Review Quotes
Contents

"After reading this book, you will have a good appreciation of general difficulties associated with monitoring rare species but also many ideas to accomplish the task.... Overall, I highly recommend this book. It is well written and informative; the authors should be credited for synthesizing very relevant information for a sub-discipline in great need of credible methodology. For the wildlife ecologist tasked with monitoring rare or elusive species, but uncertain how, this book serves as an essential step to achieve success. For students or professionals interested in the science of rare and elusive species, consider this a must-read. For those afraid of another book full of equations, don’t be; Thompson and coauthors, though no doubt capable of writing technical jargon, did a fantastic job funneling their knowledge into a very readable, informative and, dare I say, enjoyable book on sampling."

Stewart W. Breck, Wildlife Society Bulletin

Table of Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

1. Introduction

Part I: Overview and
Basic Concepts

2. Sampling Rare Populations

3. Separating Components of Detection Probability in Abundance
Estimation: An Overview with Diverse
Examples

4. Indexes as Surrogates to Abundance for Low-Abundance Species

Part II: Sampling Designs
for Rare Species and Populations

5. Application of Adaptive Sampling to Biological
Populations

6. Two-Phase Adaptive Stratified Sampling

7. Sequential Sampling for Rare or Geographically Clustered
Populations

Part III: Estimating
Occupancy

8. Occupancy Estimation and Modeling for Rare and Elusive
Species

9. A Bayesian Approach to Estimating Presence When a Species
is Undetected

10. Searching for New Populations of Rare Plant Species in
Remote Locations

Part IV: Estimating
Abundance, Density and Other Parameters

11. Using Non-invasive Genetic Sampling to Detect and Estimate
Abundance of Rare Wildlife Species

12. Photographic Sampling of Elusive Mammals in Tropical
Forests

13. Using Probability Sampling of Animal Tracks in Snow to
Estimate Abundance

14. Sampling Rockfish Populations: Adaptive Sampling and
Hydroacoustics

15. Survival Estimation in Bats: Historical Overview, Critical
Appraisal, and Suggestions for New Approaches

16. Evaluating Methods for Monitoring Populations of Mexican
Spotted Owls: A Case Study

Part V: The Future

17. Future Directions in Estimating
Abundance of Rare or Elusive Species

Contributors

Reviewers

About the Editor

Index

Biodiversity & Wildlife

Ecosystem Science & Management

You may purchase this title at fine bookstores across the United States. Outside the USA, see our international sales information.