Abstract:
Many carnivores are difficult and labour-intensive to detect, often leading to prohibitively
high effort and cost in large-scale surveys.However,such studies provide information that is
important for effective management and conservation. Here, we evaluate the suitability of
three survey methods for landscape-scale multi-species monitoring. We compare sign
surveys, spotlighting, and audio playbacks in terms of detection efficiency, precision, effort,
and cost. Sign surveys out-performed the other methods in all comparison criteria, although
supplementary methods were needed for some species and sites. We found that using
established analysis techniques, robust landscape-scale abundance estimates would
require unrealistically high effort and cost. Occupancy estimation required considerably
lower sample sizes and was therefore more economical. We conclude that sign-based
occupancy estimates constitute a versatile and efficient option for future large-scale,
multi-species carnivore surveys.
