Estimating trends in alligator populations from nightlight survey data

Wetlands

Volumn 31, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 147-155

  Fujisaki, Ikuko ^a   Mazzotti, Frank J ^a   Dorazio, Robert M ^b,c   Rice, Kenneth G ^c   Cherkiss, Michael ^a   Jeffery, Brian ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA   (United States)

^b University of Florida   (United States)

^c U S GEOLOGICAL SURVEY   (United States)

Author keywords

Alligator mississippiensis; Crocodilian; Detection probability; Everglades; Hierarchical model; Monitoring

Indexed keywords

ABUNDANCE; BIOLOGICAL SURVEY; BODY SIZE; DATA SET; DETECTION METHOD; ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING; POPULATION DECLINE; POPULATION ESTIMATION; POPULATION MODELING; RECRUITMENT (POPULATION DYNAMICS); REPTILE; WATER DEPTH; WETLAND;

EVERGLADES; FLORIDA [UNITED STATES]; UNITED STATES;

ALLIGATOR; ALLIGATOR MISSISSIPPIENSIS; ALLIGATORINAE; ANIMALIA; CROCODYLIDAE (ALL CROCODILES);

EID: 79952005102     PISSN: 02775212     EISSN: 19436246     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s13157-010-0120-0     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. Barr B (1997) Food habits of the American alligator, Alligator mississippiensis, in the southern Everglades. Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida
2. Bayliss P (1987) Survey methods and monitoring within crocodilian management programmes. In: Webb GJW, Manolis SC, Whitehead PJ (eds) Wildlife management: crocodiles and alligators, pp 157-175. Surrey Beatty and Sons Pty Ltd. Chipping Norton Australia
3. P Bayliss GJW Webb PJ Whitehead K Dempsey A Smith 1986 Estimating the abundance of saltwater crocodiles, Crocodylus porosus, Schneider, in tidal wetlands of the Northern Territory; a mark-recapture experiment to correct spotlight counts to absolute numbers, and the calibration of helicopter and spotlight counts Australian Wildlife Research 13 309 320 10.1071/WR9860309
4. Beyer HL (2004) Hawth's Analysis Tools for ArcGIS. Available at: http://www.spatialecology.com/htools
5. LA Brandt FJ Mazzotti 2000 Nesting of alligators at the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge Florida Field Naturalist 28 122 126
6. Brandt LA, Silveira JE, Kitchen WM (2002) Tree islands of the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. In: Sklar FH, van der Valk A (eds) Tree islands of the Everglades. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, p 541
7. SP Brooks A Gelman 1998 General methods for monitoring convergence of iterative simulations Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics 7 434 455 10.2307/1390675 (Pubitemid 128635035)
8. Bugbee C (2008) Emergence dynamics of American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis). In: Arthur R (ed) Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge: life history and application to statewide alligator surveys. Thesis, University of Florida, Gainesville, pp 115
9. P Cassey BH McCardle 1999 An assessment of distance sampling techniques for estimating animal abundance Environmentrics 10 261 278 10.1002/(SICI)1099- 095X(199905/06)10:3<261::AID-ENV351>3.0.CO;2-O (Pubitemid 29319457)
10. Chabreck RH (1965) The movement of alligators in Louisiana. In: Proceedings of 19th annual conference Southeastern Association of Game and Fish Commission 1965, pp 102-110
11. Chabreck RH (1966) Methods of determining the size and composition of alligator population in Louisiana. In: Proceedings of 20th annual conference Southeastern Association of Game and Fish Commission 1966, pp105-122
12. MS Cherkiss FJ Mazzotti KG Rice 2006 Effects of shoreline vegetation on visibility of American crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus) during spotlight surveys Herpetological Review 37 37 40
13. HB Cott 1961 Scientific results of an inquiry into the ecology and economic status of the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) in Uganda and Northern Rhodesia Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 29 211 356 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1961.tb00220.x
14. WF DeBusk S Newman KR Reddy 2001 Spatio-temporal patterns of soil phosphorous enrichment in Everglades Water Conservation Area 2A Journal of Environmental Quality 30 1438 1446 1:CAS:528:DC%2BD3MXntFWqs7k%3D 10.2134/jeq2001.3041438x 11476523 (Pubitemid 32661168)
15. RF Doren JC Trexler AD Gottlieb MC Harwell 2009 Ecological indicators for system-wide assessment of the greater Everglades ecosystem restoration program Ecological Indicators 9S 2 16 10.1016/j.ecolind.2008.08.009
16. Fennema RJ, Neidrauer CJ, Johnson RA, MacVicar TK, Perkins WA (1994) A computer model to simulate natural Everglades hydrology. In: Davis S, Ogden J (eds) Everglades: the ecosystem and its restoration. St. Lucie, Delray Beach, pp 249-289
17. TC Hines 1979 The past and present status of the alligator in Florida Proceedings of Annual Conference Southeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies 33 224 232
18. JM Hutton MEJ Woolhouse 1989 Mark-recapture to assess factors affecting the population of a Nile crocodile population seen during spotlight counts at Ngezi, Zimbabwe, and the use of spotlight counts to monitor crocodile abundance Journal of Applied Ecology 26 381 395 10.2307/2404068 (Pubitemid 20419836)
19. Jacobsen T, Kushlan JA (1984) Population status of the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) in Everglades National Park. South Florida Research center report, Homestead, p 43
20. M Kery RM Dorazio L Soldaat A van Strien A Zuiderwijk JA Royle 2009 Trend estimation in populations with imperfect detection Journal of Applied Ecology 46 1163 1172
21. M Lentic G Connors 2006 Changes in the distribution and abundance of saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) in the upstream, freshwater reaches of rivers in the Northern Territory, Australia Wildlife Research 33 529 538 10.1071/WR05090 (Pubitemid 44760068)
22. WF Loftus JA Kushlan 1987 Freshwater fishes of southern Florida. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum Biological Sciences 31 147 344
23. Mazzotti FJ, Brandt LA (1994) Ecology of the American alligator in a seasonally fluctuating environment. In: Davis S, Ogden J (eds) Everglades: the ecosystem and its restoration. St. Lucie, Delray Beach, pp 485-505 (Pubitemid 24415206)
24. FJ Mazzotti GR Best LA Brandt MS Cherkiss BM Jeffery KG Rice 2009 Alligators and crocodiles as indicators for restoration of Everglades ecosystems Ecological Indicators 9S 137 149 10.1016/j.ecolind.2008.06.008
25. JJ Montague 1983 Influence of water level, hunting pressure and habitat type on crocodile abundance in the Fly River Drainage, Papua New Guinea Biological Conservation 26 309 339 10.1016/0006-3207(83)90095-2 (Pubitemid 14275053)
26. RECOVER 2004 (2004) CERP Monitoring and Assessment Plan: Part 1, Monitoring and Supporting Research Restoration Coordination and Verification. C/O U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, Jacksonville, Florida and South Florida Water Management District, West Palm Beach, Florida
27. Rice KG, Mazzotti FJ, Brandt LA (2005) Status of American alligator in southern Florida and its role in measuring restoration success in the Everglades. In: Meshaka WE Jr, Babbitt KJ (eds) Amphibians and reptiles: status and conservation in Florida. Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, pp 145-153
28. JA Royle 2004 N-mixture models for estimating population size for spatially replicated counts Biometrics 62 97 102 10.1111/j.1541-0420.2005.00439. x
29. JA Royle RM Dorazio 2006 Hierarchical models of animal abundance and occurrence Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics 11 249 263 10.1198/108571106X129153 (Pubitemid 44383303)
30. Royle JA, Dorazio RM (2008) Hierarchical modeling and inference in ecology. Academic, London
31. JA Royle M Kery R Gautier H Schmid 2007 Hierarchical spatial models of abundance and occurrence from imperfect survey data Ecological Monographs 77 465 481 10.1890/06-0912.1 (Pubitemid 351342494)
32. KP Schmidt 1924 Notes on Central American crocodiles Field Museum of Natural History, Zoology Series 13 79 92
33. SM Smith DE Gawlik K Rutchey GE Crozier S Gray 2003 Assessing drought-related ecological risk in the Florida Everglades Journal of Environmental Management 68 344 366 10.1016/S0301-4797(03)00102-6 (Pubitemid 37184498)
34. DJ Spiegelhalter NG Best BP Carlin A Van der Linde 2002 Bayesian measures of model complexity and fit (with discussion) Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series B 64 583 616 10.1111/1467-9868.00353
35. RK Steinhorst MD Samuel 1989 Sightability adjustment methods for aerial surveys of wildlife populations Biometrics 45 415 426 10.2307/2531486
36. SK Thompson GAF Seber 1994 Detectability in conventional and adaptive sampling Biometrics 50 712 724 1:STN:280:DyaK2M%2Fnt1ahug%3D%3D 10.2307/2532785 7981397 (Pubitemid 24320819)
37. JC Trexler GW Goss 2009 Aquatic fauna as indicators for Everglades restoration: applying dynamic targets in assessments Ecological Indicators 9S 108 119 10.1016/j.ecolind.2008.11.001
38. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1999) Final integrated feasibility report and programmatic environmental assessment. Central and southern Florida project comprehensive review study. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Jacksonville District, Florida
39. GJW Webb H Messel 1979 Wariness in Crocodylus porpsus (Reptilia: Crocodilidae) Australian Wildlife Research 6 227 234 10.1071/WR9790227
40. JM Wood AR Woodward S Humphrey TC Hines 1985 Night counts as an index of American alligator population trends Wildlife Society Bulletin 13 262 302
41. AR Woodward WR Marion 1978 An evaluation of factors affecting night-light counts of alligators Proceedings of Annual Conference Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies 32 291 302
42. Woodward AR, Moore CT (1990) Statewide alligator surveys. Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission Final Report, Tallahassee, Florida, USA
43. AR Woodward TC Hines CL Abercrombie JD Nichols 1987 Survival of young American alligators on a Florida lake Journal of Wildlife Management 51 931 937 10.2307/3801762
44. JC Wright 1987 Energy metabolism during unrestrained submergence in the saltwater crocodile Crocodile porosus Physiological Zoology 60 515 523