Using presence of sign to measure habitats used by Roosevelt elk
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Abstract
tract Radiotelemetry and pellet-group surveys are methods used commonly to measure habi- tat use by large ungulates. However, telemetry can be expensive and analysis of data col- lected from pellet-group surveys is restricted to rank analysis. We explored the feasibil- ity of recording the presence of Roosevelt elk (Cervus elaphus roosevelti) sign to identify habitats used by elk. We surveyed stations (1-ha circular plots) about 0.72 km apart for the presence of 0- to 4-day-old elk sign (tracks and feces) from October to April 1994-1997 at 2 sites in northwestern California. Our objectives were to: 1) measure errors in detecting and classifying elk presence at stations from sign, 2) determine auto- correlation of elk sign at stations to assess what is an independent data point, 3) examine the effect of 2 station sizes on the rate of sign detections, and 4) determine sample sizes needed to detect habitat use. We detected elk sign 96.6% of the time (n=68) when elk were observed at stations within 0-4 days. Elk sign was misclassified only 3 times (n= 70). No autocorrelations in sign detections across time or space were detected because observed data were similar to sign generated randomly at stations. The proportion of 1-ha (0.12) and 2-ha stations (0.13) with sign was similar. Sample sizes >400 were need- ed to have power >0.8 to detect relationships among habitat variables and frequency of sign at stations. Recording the presence of sign in stations appears to be a reliable and feasible technique to measure habitats used by elk.
Publication type | Article |
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Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
Title | Using presence of sign to measure habitats used by Roosevelt elk |
Series title | Wildlife Society Bulletin |
Volume | 28 |
Issue | 1 |
Year Published | 2000 |
Language | English |
Publisher | Wildlife Society |
Contributing office(s) | Western Ecological Research Center |
Description | 8 p. |
First page | 146 |
Last page | 153 |
Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |