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Estimating Tiger Abundance from Camera Trap Data: Field Surveys and Analytical Issues

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Camera Traps in Animal Ecology

Abstract

Automated photography of tigers Panthera tigris for purely illustrative purposes was pioneered by British forester Fred Champion (1927, 1933) in India in the early part of the Twentieth Century. However, it was McDougal (1977) in Nepal who first used camera traps, equipped with single-lens reflex cameras activated by pressure pads, to identify individual tigers and study their social and predatory behaviors. These attempts involved a small number of expensive, cumbersome camera traps, and were not, in any formal sense, directed at “sampling” tiger populations.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    K. Ullas Karanth

  2. U.S. Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD, 20708, USA

    James D. Nichols

Authors
  1. K. Ullas Karanth
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  2. James D. Nichols
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Correspondence to K. Ullas Karanth .

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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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Karanth, K.U., Nichols, J.D. (2011). Estimating Tiger Abundance from Camera Trap Data: Field Surveys and Analytical Issues. 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_7

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