Accounting for Viewshed Area and Animal Availability When Estimating Density and Recruitment of Unmarked White-Tailed Deer

Abstract

Quantifying the demography of wildlife is vital to population monitoring; however, studies using physical capture methods can prove challenging. Camera traps have gained popularity as a density estimator tool in recent decades due to noninvasive data collection, reduced labor, cost efficiency, and large-scale monitoring capabilities. Many wildlife populations are comprised of individuals with no unique natural markers for individual identification, resulting in need for unmarked abundance models. The recently developed Space-to-Event (STE) model offers a method for density estimation of unmarked populations using timelapse photography. STE relates detections of animals to camera sampling area (i.e., viewshed), resulting in density estimates that can be extrapolated to abundance over large areas. Consequently, this makes STE sensitive to estimates of viewshed area as small changes in viewshed could significantly affect density estimation. Using STE, we estimated density and recruitment of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in a densely forested landscape using measurements of viewshed per camera. We compared estimates of abundance derived from uniquely measured viewshed to estimates of abundance derived from an assumed viewshed area held constant across all cameras. When using a constant viewshed across all cameras, our point estimates of abundance shifted away from uniquely measured viewshed estimates in predictable ways, depending upon how much area was sampled. Additionally, we demonstrated the need for further exploration of animal availability at fine temporal scales by comparing estimates of density derived from sampling the full diel period to estimates derived from periods of peak activity (i.e., crepuscular periods). Finally, we extended the usefulness of the STE model by using densities of fawns and adult females to derive estimates of fawn recruitment.

Keywords: abundance; camera traps; space‐to‐event; timelapse photography; unmarked population.