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Karanth, K.U.; Nichols, J.D.; Hedges, S.
Estimating abundance and other demographic parameters in elephant populations using capture-recapture sampling: statistical concepts
2012 Book Chapter
Photographic or DNA based capture-recapture sampling can provide a practical and rigorous way to estimate the abundance, density and other demographic parameters of wild elephant populations. These methods provide unbiased and more precise estimates (because there are fewer sources of variance) than many other methods including dung density based methods; they take less time to execute than dung density based methods (not least because there is no need for a lengthy pre-survey period monitoring dung decay rates) [Hedges et al. in review]; they provide more data about population parameters (sex ratio, genetic variability, effective population size, etc.); and they allow survival and recruitment rates to be estimated from repeated surveys. We strongly recommend the consideration and use of these modern sampling methods instead of the 'traditional census methods' that largely ignore critical issues of imperfect detections and thus produce biased estimates.
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