Title of the project
Estimating Population Size of Elusive Animals with DNA from Hunter-Collected Feces: Four Methods for Brown Bears
Description
To test the use of non-invasive genetic sampling as a process to estimate population size
Volunteer hunters were requested to submit any located bear feces. Samples were collected, submitted and genetically analysed to estimate the population size.
90% of all data submitted was submitted by hunters
Results
population size estimates range from 378 to 572 bears in 2001 and 273 to 433 bears in 2002
Location
| Country | Sweden |
| Level | Regional |
| Region | Dalarna and Gavleborg counties |
Starting date
2001
Habitat Types
Forest/Woodland
Protection status of the areas
Hunting reserve
Species
| Species Caracteristics | Huntable species, Protected species, Threatened species |
| Species Type | Large carnivores |
| Name(s) of main species | Brown bear - Ursus arctos |
Conservation action(s)
Research and data collection (e.g. monitoring, bag data)
Partners
| Leading partners | Department of Ecology and Natural Resource Management, Agricultural University of Norway (https://www.nmbu.no/en/about-nmbu/faculties/miljotek/departments/ina)Laboratoire d’Ecologie Alpine, Génomique des Populations et Biodiversité (http://www-leca.ujf-grenoble.fr/?lang=en)Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (http://www.nina.no/english/home)Scandinavian Brown Bear Project (http://bearproject.info/) |
| Other partners | 48 local hunting organisations |
Estimation of Human Resources needed
roughly 24,000 hunters volunteered in 2001;roughly 21,000 hunters volunteered in 2002.
Publication(s)
BELLEMAIN, E., SWENSON, J. E., TALLMON, D., BRUNBERG, S. and TABERLET, P. (2005), Estimating Population Size of Elusive Animals with DNA from Hunter-Collected Feces: Four Methods for Brown Bears. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00549.x/abstract)Conservation Biology, 19: 150–161
Weblinks
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00549.x/abstract