NRC 261 1st Edition Lecture 8 February 24 Exam 2 Study Guide Lectures 8 15 Population Estimation What are the basic reasons for counting wildlife Know a good example of each Want to know if there are too few like when there were only 15 condors lefT too many cultural carrying capacity exceeded for example if there is enough like ducks being harvested by hunters and if there s enough to shoot and if the population is in good or bad shape status of the population What possible biases occur in population estimation Know a good example of each kind conditions under which you re doing the survey weather affects visibility windy day might make it difficult to identify bird calls accessibility harder to get to rhinos because the researchers would have to walk for two weeks just to get near them animal density some just really rare so difficult to find vegetation topography observer effect the kind of effort put into the estimation someone isn t trained very well may constantly miss seeing something you might not sample enough timing seasons some like winter are bad for viewing certain species the time of day some animals more active at night vs day animal behavior differential observability when you set automatic cameras on jaguar trails you may see more males than females because females don t hang around where males do variation in distribution animals distributed differently across landscape and more in one area than in another different catachbility some animals are much easier to see than others and less shy If somebody asks you to count some species what 2 questions are the first ones you should ask them how important is the information and How much will it count What are the differences between a census a population estimate or a population index Under what conditions are each the most appropriate means to estimate abundance give an example for each a census is a complete exact count example at Isle Royale they wanted an exact number of how many timber wolves there would be thought that a census was the best way to keep up with the wolf population population estimate gives you a number but is not a complete count it is more of a range of what it could be example you know a lot about deer in MN because there are so many deer hunters there so the state has to know the population estimate although a census can t be done because there are too many population index says there are less today than there were yesterday or that there are relatively few or relatively a lot can be passive and look for frequency of poop on roads or tracks and you could come up with a rough index of how much food in North America there is for wolves and then compare with a density of wolves Know how to get a population estimate from a complete count of a sample They picked one area of wolves and counted the number of wolves in the pack at the beginning of winter and then at the end of winter They knew how many wolves were in that pack and they also knew that there were more passing lone wolves coming through the territory This gives them an idea of the larger population estimate Know the basics calculations of a mark recapture population estimate N C M R N the total of individuals in the population at a certain sample M of individuals marked in the first sample C Total of individuals captured in 2nd sample R total marked individuals in 2nd sample this is used to get a population estimate of a certain species population at the time of sampling Know the assumptions needed for mark recapture estimates I Every animal is equally catchable J Marks are not lost if you put collars on them that they didn t fall off for example K Assume a closed population without any immigration or emigration L Marking doesn t affect the catch ability of animals Know the differences between inactive and active direct indices What can go wrong in relying on such indices for population estimation inactive direct indices going to find where wolf scats are and the frequency of the poop on roads and the same with tracks or just making observations of the animals themselves active direct indices bait stations trapping surveys people out trapping wolves must know where they are and where they aren t can get wolves to respond to people howling Why does the indirect index of using ungulate biomass to predict wolf density work so well first they came up with a rough survey of how much food there was for wolves ungulates and plotted that against the wolf density This shows a relationship between an abundance of ungulates wolf food and relatively speaking a higher density of wolves Putting this together gives you a population estimation of wolves in a particular area This works because there can t be more wolves in an area than the ungulate biomass could support Lecture 9 February 27 Conservation Genetics Know examples of the different kinds of biotic diversity ecosystem diversity community diversity species diversity genetic diversity What are the 2 general types of information genetics can provide for conservation provides an understanding of evolutionary processes how things came about sometimes must infer how something came to be adaptations to the environment etc identifies level of genetic diversity within a species in particular What kinds of genetic samples have been and can be collected organs blood hair scats enzymes mitochondrial DNA nuclear DNA and RNA Polymerase Chain Reaction PCR Early on scientists analyzed the liver to try and tell variation by analyzing enzymes 1970 s In the late 1980 s they started collecting blood samples to look at differentiating fox species In the late 1990 s they were able to use nuclear DNA and RNA because of the PCR duplicating machine because it is difficult to get enough DNA to do something with and PCR made it possible to make lots of copies of that DNA by splitting it and adding a bunch of similar nucleotides if done correctly then the nucleotides connect to separate strands of DNA and make duplicates through exponential growth Know the specific examples given for how conservation genetics can be used among species within species and among individuals Know what a red panda bananaquit Darwin s fox and prairie chicken are Red panda has a common ancestor with other bears including brown bears and panda bears and they live in China and areas like Bhutan and are a smaller round creature who lives in trees and has a mask and a ringed tail They are more closely related to the raccoon than any other type of