A camera-based method for estimating absolute density in animals displaying home range behaviour

1.The measurement of animal density may take advantage of recent technological achievements in wildlife video recording. Fostering the theoretical links between the patterns depicted by cameras and absolute density is required to exploit this potential.

2.We explore the applicability of the Hutchinson-Waser's postulate (i.e., when animal density is stationary at a given temporal and spatial scale, the absolute density is given by the average number of animals counted per frame), which is a counter-intuitive statement for most ecologists and managers who are concerned with counting the same individual more than once. We aimed to reconcile such skepticism for animals displaying home range behaviour.

3.The specific objectives of this paper are to generalize the Hutchinson-Waser's postulate for animals displaying home range behaviour and to propose a Bayesian implementation to estimate density from counts per frame using video cameras.

4.Accuracy and precision of the method was eva...