Predator Presence and Vegetation Density Affect Capture Rates and Detectability of Litoria aurea Tadpoles: Wide-Ranging Implications for a Common Survey Technique.

ABSTRACT: Trapping is a common sampling technique used to estimate fundamental population metrics of animal species such as abundance, survival and distribution. However, capture success for any trapping method can be heavily influenced by individuals' behavioural plasticity, which in turn affects the accuracy of any population estimates derived from the data. Funnel trapping is one of the most common methods for sampling aquatic vertebrates, although, apart from fish studies, almost nothing is known about the effects of behavioural plasticity on trapping success. We used a full factorial experiment to investigate the effects that two common environmental parameters (predator presence and vegetation density) have on the trapping success of tadpoles. We estimated that the odds of tadpoles being captu

SUBMITTER: Sanders MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4659664 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature