Using occupancy analysis to validate the use of footprint tunnels as a method for monitoring the hedgehog <scp><i>E</i></scp><i>rinaceus europaeus</i>

Yarnell, Richard W.; Pacheco, Marina; Williams, Ben M.; Neumann, Jessica; Rymer, David J.; Baker, Philip J.

doi:10.1111/mam.12026

Cited by 24 publications

(32 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…We found that using an indirect sign survey was suitable for estimating the occupancy of Chinese pangolin to address the problem of inadequate direct sightings. To validating the indirect sign and survey especially for the study of mammals, occupancy models are considered a powerful approach (Yarnell et al, 2014). However, our survey did not meet the assumption of abundance models of occupancy (Conroy, Runge, Barjer, & Schofield, 2008; Nichols, Hines, MacKenzie, Seamans, & Guiterrez, 2007; Royle & Nichols, 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating occupancy of Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) in a protected and non‐protected area of Nepal

Sharma¹,

Sharma

Chaulagain

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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Chinese pangolin is the world's most heavily trafficked small mammal for luxury food and traditional medicine. Although their populations are declining worldwide, it is difficult to monitor their population status because of its rarity and nocturnal behavior. We used site occupancy (presence/absence) sampling of pangolin sign (i.e., active burrows) in a protected (Gaurishankar Conservation Area) and non‐protected area (Ramechhap District) of central Nepal with multiple environmental covariates to understand factors that may influence occupancy of Chinese pangolin. The average Chinese pangolin occupancy and detection probabilities were trueΨ^ ± SE = 0.77 ± 0.08; truep^ ± SE = 0.27 ± 0.05, respectively. The detection probabilities of Chinese pangolin were higher in PA ( truep^ ± SE = 0.33 ± 0.03) than compared to non‐PA ( truep^ ± SE = 0.25 ± 0.04). The most important covariates for Chinese pangolin detectability were red soil (97%), food source (97.6%), distance to road (97.9%), and protected area (97%) and with respect to occupancy was elevation (97.9%). We recommended use of remote cameras and potentially GPS collar surveys to further investigate habitat use and site occupancy at regular intervals to provide more reliable conservation assessments.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating occupancy of Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) in a protected and non‐protected area of Nepal

Sharma¹,

Sharma

Chaulagain

et al. 2020

Ecology and Evolution

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“…This highlights the importance of suitable release sites for rehabilitated hedgehogs, with optimal release sites being those that are suburban and free of badgers. This is borne out by current research in the UK showing that hedgehog occupancy and abundance is low in rural landscapes (Hubert et al 2011;Yarnell et al 2014;Pettett et al 2017;Williams et al 2018;Williams et al 2018a), which suggests that these habitats are sub-optimal for hedgehogs and should not be used for rehabilitation release and that release into suburban areas without main roads and badgers should increase individual survival rates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Should rehabilitated hedgehogs be released in winter? A comparison of survival, nest use and weight change in wild and rescued animals

et al. 2019

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The rehabilitation of sick or injured wildlife and their subsequent release back into the wild is considered important, not only for the welfare of the individual animal but also for the conservation and management of endangered and threatened wildlife. The European hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus has declined by 25% in Britain over the last decade and is the most common mammal admitted to wildlife rehabilitation centres in Britain, with a large proportion of individuals admitted to gain body weight overwinter prior to release in the spring. Consequently, many thousands of hedgehogs are housed overwinter which incurs significant costs for rehabilitation centres, and has potentially animal welfare issues, such as, stress in captivity, reintroduction stress, increased mortality risk and impaired or altered behaviour. To determine if releasing rehabilitated hedgehogs during autumn and winter had an effect on their survival, body weight or nesting behaviour, we compared these factors between 34 rehabilitated hedgehogs with 23 wild hedgehogs across five sites in England over four different winters. Overwinter survival was high for both wild and rehabilitated hedgehogs, with a significant decrease in survival across both groups when hedgehogs became active post hibernation in spring. We found no differences in the survival rates up to 150 days post release, in weight change, or nest use between wild-and winter-released rehabilitated hedgehogs. Our results suggest that under the correct conditions, rehabilitated hedgehogs can be released successfully during winter, therefore avoiding or reducing time in captivity.

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“…For all three studies, training material and workshops were developed by the researchers and provided to students and teachers prior to the actual field research. Hands‐on activities such as setting up hedgehog footprint tracking tunnels (Yarnell et al., ) and identification trainings for birds and butterflies as well as methods on how to observe animals and to follow standardised protocols were taught to students and teachers before the start of their participation.…”

Section: Case Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hands-on activities such as setting up hedgehog footprint tracking tunnels (Yarnell et al, 2014) and identification trainings for birds and butterflies as well as methods on how to observe animals and to follow standardised protocols were taught to students and teachers before the start of their participation.…”

Section: Students As Reliable Observers and Multipliers In Wildlifementioning

confidence: 99%

Citizen science and wildlife biology: Synergies and challenges

et al. 2018

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Citizen science (CS) has evolved over the past decades as a working method involving interested citizens in scientific research, for example by reporting observations, taking measurements or analysing data. In the past, research on animal behaviour has been benefitting from contributions of citizen scientists mainly in the field of ornithology but the full potential of CS in ecological and behavioural sciences is surely still untapped. Here, we present case studies that successfully applied CS to research projects in wildlife biology and discuss potentials and challenges experienced. Our case studies cover a broad range of opportunities: largescale CS projects with interactive online tools on bird song dialects, engagement of stakeholders as citizen scientists to reduce human-wildlife conflicts, involvement of students of primary and secondary schools in CS projects as well as collaboration with the media leading to successful recruitment of citizen scientists. Each case study provides a short overview of the scientific questions and how they were approached to showcase the potentials and challenges of CS in wildlife biology.Based on the experience of the case studies, we highlight how CS may support research in wildlife biology and emphasise the value of fostering communication in CS to improve recruitment of participants and to facilitate learning and mutual trust among different groups of interest (e.g., researchers, stakeholders, students).We further show how specific training for the participants may be needed to obtain reliable data. We consider CS as a suitable tool to enhance research in wildlife biology through the application of open science procedures (i.e., open access to articles and the data on publicly available repositories) to support transparency and sharing experiences.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Using occupancy analysis to validate the use of footprint tunnels as a method for monitoring the hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus

Cited by 24 publications

References 12 publications

Estimating occupancy of Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) in a protected and non‐protected area of Nepal

Estimating occupancy of Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) in a protected and non‐protected area of Nepal

Should rehabilitated hedgehogs be released in winter? A comparison of survival, nest use and weight change in wild and rescued animals

Citizen science and wildlife biology: Synergies and challenges

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