Stakeholders engagement as an important step for the long-term monitoring of wild ungulate populations

Monitoring trends in animal populations is essential for the development of appropriate wildlife management strategies. However, long-term studies are difficult to maintain mainly due to the lack of continuous funding. In this scenario, the collaboration between local stakeholders and researchers can be a fruitful partnership to monitor game species for long periods and vast territories.

We present an experimental framework with the involvement of researchers, local hunters, and game managers for the continuous monitoring of wild ungulate populations. By combining vehicle-based counts with Distance sampling techniques, we implemented and validated a sampling scheme able to provide demographic information for the effective management of wild ungulate populations. Here, we used an Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus) population as a model.

The project implementation involved 30 participants including 24 stakeholders and 6 field technicians/data analysts with experience in monitoring wi...