Estimating forest elephant density in Sapo National Park (Liberia) with a rainfall model
- 7 May 2002
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in African Journal of Ecology
- Vol. 40 (2) , 159-163
- https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2028.2002.00362.x
Abstract
The number of elephant dung‐piles lying on the forest floor is a function of the number of elephants present and the rainfall in the 2 preceding months. We present the results of a stochastic model that describes this relationship and we show how it can be used to estimate elephant numbers. The data from a survey in Sapo NP (Liberia) in 1989 are used as an example. The dung‐pile density was estimated at 152 km−2with confidence interval from 72 to 322, and the number of elephants was estimated to be 313 with confidence interval from 172 to 617.Keywords
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