Lab 3 - Estimating Animal Abundances Using Distance-Based Methods

This experiment was conducted on September 29, 2015 from, 3:20pm to 4:05pm, at Danby Woods, York University in the grassland area and the woodlot area to estimate the animal abundances using a belt transect as a distance-based technique. The experiment was performed by Daniel, Mohammed, Markian, Bonnie, and Nicole. The weather consisted of dark cloudy skies with rainfall, at a temperature of 16°C. The grassland terrain consisted of low-leveled vegetation while the woodlot area consisted of many trees with assorted heights. There were 10 replicates noted, 5 for the grassland and 5 for the woodlot. For each replicate a 10 meter belt transect was placed on the ground and 5 minutes were taken to walk down the transect looking for birds in a 10 meter radius from the transect. Each time a bird flew within the area of the transect a few observations were recorded; i) the frequency of birds passing by, ii) the species of the bird which was estimated by the size and colour of the birds, iii) beaufort wind scale which was determined by the conditions of our surroundings, iv) and the distance from the transect, either left or right from the transect using a maximum radius of 10 meters.