Abstract
In this chapter, we presented the sampling methods employed for assessing the abundance of elephants in the four Elephant Reserves of Kerala State, India. Three different sampling methods, sampling block count and direct sighting and dung survey using line transect sampling were used. Dung survey appeared to be better method than the others. The total estimated elephant population using dung survey for all the reserves was 7490 with 95% confidence limit of 6280–9053. However, more studies to obtain defecation and decay rates in varying climatic conditions will help improving the accuracy of the estimates of the elephant population.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thankfully acknowledge the excellent guidance and support provided by the Officers of the Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department. The financial assistance for the Population Estimation of Wildlife was provided by the Kerala Forests and Wildlife Department, Government of Kerala. The authors are also thankful to the reviewers for their useful suggestions which improved the readability of this chapter.
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Sivaram, M., Ramachandran, K.K., Jayson, E.A., Nair, P.V. (2020). Estimation of Abundance of Asiatic Elephants in Elephant Reserves of Kerala State, India. In: Chandra, G., Nautiyal, R., Chandra, H. (eds) Statistical Methods and Applications in Forestry and Environmental Sciences. Forum for Interdisciplinary Mathematics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1476-0_17
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