How numbers of nesting sea turtles can be overestimated by nearly a factor of two.

ABSTRACT: Estimating the absolute number of individuals in populations and their fecundity is central to understanding the ecosystem role of species and their population dynamics as well as allowing informed conservation management for endangered species. Estimates of abundance and fecundity are often difficult to obtain for rare or cryptic species. Yet, in addition, here we show for a charismatic group, sea turtles, that are neither cryptic nor rare and whose nesting is easy to observe, that the traditional approach of direct observations of nesting has likely led to a gross overestimation of the number of individuals in populations and underestimation of their fecundity. We use high-resolution GPS satellite tags to track female green turtles throughout their nesting season in the Chagos Archipelag

SUBMITTER: Esteban N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5326529 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature