Spatial Capture-Recapture: a Promising Method for Analyzing Data Collected Using Artificial Cover Objects

Abstract/Summary

ABSTRACT: Spatial capture-recapture (SCR) is a relatively recent development in ecological statistics that provides a spatial context for estimating abundance and space use patterns, and as a result improves inference about absolute population density. SCR has been applied to individual encounter data collected non-invasively using methods such as camera traps, hair snares and scat surveys. Despite the wide-spread use of capture based surveys to monitor amphibians and reptiles, there are few applications of SCR in the herpetological literature. We demonstrate the utility and promise of the application of SCR in studies of reptiles and amphibians by analyzing capture recapture data from red-backed salamanders, Plethodon cinereus, collected using artificial cover boards. Using SCR to analyze spatial encounter histories of marked individuals, we found evidence that density differed little among 4 sites within the same forest (on average https://1.59 salamanders per m2) and that salamander detection probability peaked in early October (Julian day 278) reflecting expected surface activity patterns of the species. The spatial scale of detectability, a measure of space use, suggests that the 95% fall home range size for this population of red-backed salamanders was https://16.89 m2. Surveying reptiles and amphibians using artificial cover boards regularly generates spatial encounter history data of known individuals which can readily be analyzed using SCR methods, providing estimates of absolute density and inference about the spatial scale of habitat use.

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