Amazonian wildlife population studies often employ conventional biological survey methods to assess species presence but a growing number of studies are making use of local ecological knowledge (LEK) household surveys. Despite concerns in the scientific community over the accuracy and precision of LEK, scant research to date compares data from conventional biological survey methods with data gathered from household surveys. An important question among scientists is who should be approached when collecting household survey data for wildlife inventories, both for accurate data and for ethical concerns. In this article, we report on the accuracy and precision of LEK household surveys for wildlife inventories based on data collected along the Napo River in Peru using 10 land transect surveys, 5 river transect surveys, 487 camera trap days, and 37 LEK household surveys. Our findings indicate

Understanding the effects of captivity-induced stress on wild-caught animals after their release back into the wild is critical for the long-term success of relocation and reintroduction programs. To date, most of the research on captivity stress has focused on vertebrates, with far less attention paid to invertebrates. Here, we examine the effect of short-term captivity (i.e., up to four days) on self-righting, aggregation, and predator-escape behaviours in wild-caught red sea urchins, Mesocentrotus franciscanus, after their release back into the wild. Aggregation behaviour, which has been linked to feeding in sea urchins, was not affected by handling or captivity. In contrast, the sea urchins that had been handled and released immediately, as well as those that were handled and held captive, took longer to right themselves and were poorer at fleeing from predators than wild, unhandled sea urchins. These results indicate that handling rather than captivity impaired these behaviours in the short term. The duration of captivity did not influence the sea urchin behaviours examined. Longer-term monitoring is needed to establish what the fitness consequences of these short-term behavioural changes might be. Our study nevertheless highlights the importance of considering a suite of responses when examining the effects of capture and captivity. Our findings, which are based on a locally abundant species, can inform translocation efforts aimed at bolstering populations of ecologically similar but depleted invertebrate species to retain or restore important ecosystem functions.

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