title: Optimizing field and analytical procedures for estimating densities of arboreal and threatened primates in tropical rainforest.
abstract: The application of distance sampling to primate density estimation is challenging and susceptible to estimation biases, mainly due to the difficulties of properly accounting for variation in species' detectability and of accurately sampling the spread of the social groups. We apply a hierarchical distance sampling approach to primate data, to account for a comprehensive set of environmental covariates of both detectability and abundance, and we propose a novel field routine to measure the spread of groups during transect sampling. We confirm the good potential of this approach, given we obtained refined estimates of primate density (as measured by the Akaike Information Criterion) in comparison to estimates from models without covariates.
authors.affiliation: DICAM Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.|Tropical Biodiversity Section, MUSE-Museo delle Scienze, Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9251-6471
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Cavada
authors.affiliation: DICAM Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ciolli
authors.affiliation: Tropical Biodiversity Section, MUSE-Museo delle Scienze, Trento, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Barelli
authors.affiliation: Tropical Biodiversity Section, MUSE-Museo delle Scienze, Trento, Italy.|Udzungwa Ecological Monitoring Center, Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Mang'ula, Tanzania.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rovero
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D011156:Population Density; D011323:Primates; D065947:Rainforest; D014197:Trees
keywords: abundance; group spread; hierarchical distance sampling; primate surveys; tree height