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Estimation of Species Richness of Large Vertebrates Using Camera Traps: An Example from an Indonesian Rainforest

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Book cover Camera Traps in Animal Ecology

Abstract

The number of biological species that occurs at a particular geographic unit, whether that be global, a biogeographic region, country, or national park, is of great relevance to the management and conservation of biodiversity. Major policy initiatives at the international, national, and regional levels have committed entire government programs to attaining measurable targets of this variable in the conservation of biodiversity (Danielsen et al. 2005). The Convention on Biodiversity lists a reduction in the rate of loss of biodiversity as a goal for 2010 and many of the indicators proposed to measure achievement of that goal are indices that hopefully track changes in species richness (United Nations Environment Programme 2002). It is unlikely that governments will be able to judge their progress without monitoring systems and indicators in place to assess the effectiveness of their interventions (Balmford et al. 2005). Species diversity usually refers to the number of species in a location or “species richness” (Schluter and Ricklefs 1993; Lande 1996). Species richness is often used as a state variable in evaluating the impact of management interventions and anthropogenic disturbance on biodiversity. One of the greatest hindrances to understanding and conserving biodiversity, however, is our inability to determine how many species we have and how fast that number is changing (Balmford et al. 2005; May 1988).

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Acknowledgements

Our research is a collaborative effort by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry’s Department for Protection and Conservation of Nature. Our research was funded by the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Save the Tiger Fund, a special project of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in partnership with the Exxon Mobil Corporation, the US Fish and Wildlife Service Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Fund and Princeton University Alumni Association. We would like to thank J. Ginsberg, M. Rao, L. Krueger, F. Bagley, and J. Seidensticker for their support and advice during this project. We also thank U. Wijayanto and I. Tanjung for assistance in data collection. C. Foley, S. Durant, and J Kingdon kindly provided information on Tanzania mammals. The manuscript benefited greatly from the comments of J. D. Nichols, A. F. O’Connell, K.U. Karanth, and an anonymous reviewer.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wildlife Conservation Society, 2300 Southern Blvd, Bronx, NY, 10460, USA

    Timothy G. O’Brien

  2. Mpala Research Centre, 555, Nanyuki, Kenya

    Timothy G. O’Brien

  3. Wildlife Conservation Society – Indonesia Program, Jl. Ciremai No. 8, Bogor, Indonesia

    Margaret F. Kinnaird

Authors
  1. Timothy G. O’Brien
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  2. Margaret F. Kinnaird
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Correspondence to Timothy G. O’Brien .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Patuxent Wildlife Research Center–Beltsville Lab, U.S. Geological Survey, 10300 Baltimore Avenue, Beltsville, Maryland, 20705, USA

    Allan F. O’Connell Ph.D. (Research Wildlife Biologist) (Research Wildlife Biologist)

  2. Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, U.S. Geological Survey, 12100 Beech Forest Road, Laurel, Maryland, 20708, USA

    James D. Nichols Ph.D. (Senior Scientist) (Senior Scientist)

  3. Centre for Wildlife Studies, Wildlife Conservation Society, 26-2, Aga Abbas Ali Road (Apt: 403), Bangalore, Karnataka, 560042, India

    K. Ullas Karanth Ph.D. (Senior Conservation Scientist) (Senior Conservation Scientist)

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O’Brien, T.G., Kinnaird, M.F. (2011). Estimation of Species Richness of Large Vertebrates Using Camera Traps: An Example from an Indonesian Rainforest. In: O’Connell, A.F., Nichols, J.D., Karanth, K.U. (eds) Camera Traps in Animal Ecology. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-99495-4_13

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