Abstract
Enhancements in technology are creating opportunities for novel methods of wildlife monitoring. Traditional methods of wildlife monitoring are often costly or time-consuming, and new technological advancements such as remote cameras and GPS collars are creating opportunities for exploration as these technologies become more accessible and reliable. We sought to assess the efficacy of two novel methods of ungulate monitoring. The first is an abundance estimation method using remote cameras termed Instantaneous Sampling (IS). IS seeks to estimate abundance using time lapsed remote cameras on a population of unmarked individuals. Our goal was to compare IS estimations against the true observed population numbers of bighorn sheep and bison over two years. Secondly, we evaluated the efficacy of a new method that estimates parturition events using fine-scale GPS movement data. We assessed whether this method, Analysis of Parturition Indicators (API), could be used to estimate parturition of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep. Our findings suggest that IS may not be a reliable method for abundance estimation and this method did not produce precise or accurate results for our study area. We theorize that IS is sensitive to clumped distributions and low densities. However, API did suggest that bighorn sheep parturition could be inferred through this movement-based method. API predicted parturition events within a four-day window (18% on the exact birth date, 29% within one day, 59% within two days, 74% within three days, and 100% within four days). We suggest that combining API with vaginal implant transmitters (VIT) could refine parturition estimation of Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep.
Degree
MS
College and Department
Life Sciences; Plant and Wildlife Sciences
Rights
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BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Cotcher, Elicia, "Assessing Innovations in Wildlife Monitoring: Estimating Abundance and Inferring Parturition of Ungulates With Technology" (2025). Theses and Dissertations. 11240.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/11240
Date Submitted
2025-04-23
Document Type
Thesis
Keywords
abundance, Analysis of Parturition Indicators, bighorn sheep, bison, Instantaneous Sampling, monitoring, movement, parturition, remote cameras
Language
english