Using interview surveys and multispecies occupancy models to inform vertebrate conservation
Rajeev Pillay1,2, David A W Miller3, R Raghunath1
1Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore, India.
Summary
Accurate wildlife distribution data are crucial for conservation. This study used interviews and a novel model in India
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Conservation Biology
- Biodiversity Science
Background:
- Species distribution data are vital for wildlife conservation but are often sparse due to monitoring challenges.
- Surveys of local, knowledgeable individuals offer a scalable method for assessing wildlife occurrence across large areas.
- Interview-based surveys can be prone to errors like false negatives (missed detections) and false positives (misidentifications).
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze species distribution and community ecology in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot using interview data.
- To develop and apply a multispecies occupancy model that corrects for both false-negative and false-positive errors in survey data.
- To investigate how functional species groups respond to environmental variables, protected areas, and human pressures.
Main Methods:
- Collected detection histories for 30 vertebrate species from interviews with 2318 forest-dwelling individuals in the Western Ghats.
- Developed a multispecies occupancy model to account for non-detection and misidentification errors inherent in interview data.
- Integrated species data to analyze responses of functional groups (based on traits) to environmental and anthropogenic factors.
Main Results:
- Species occurrence positively correlated with forest cover, especially for those intolerant of human disturbance.
- Protected areas showed higher species occurrence across functional groups compared to unprotected areas.
- Species intolerant of disturbance, herbivores, and large species were negatively impacted by human settlements, resource extraction, and development.
Conclusions:
- Maintaining forest cover and reducing deforestation are critical for conserving threatened vertebrates in the Western Ghats.
- Protected areas are effective but insufficient; mitigating human pressures outside protected areas is also essential.
- Conservation strategies must address deforestation and diverse human impacts in densely populated biodiversity hotspots.
Keywords:
body masscobertura forestaldemographic pressuredevelopment pressuredietdietadisturbance toleranceenvironmental variableerrores de detección positivos y negativosfalse-positive and false-negative detection errorsforest covermasa corporalpresión de desarrollopresión demográficaprotected areatolerancia a la perturbaciónvariable ambientalárea protegida人口压力体重保护区假阳性和阴性检测误差发展压力干扰容忍度森林覆盖率环境变量食性
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