What are the best practices for conducting a wildlife survey?

I'm providing advice on the objectives of a wildlife survey project. For instance, in a wildlife survey, gathering data might necessitate on-site presence. Consider the specific specimens required, their life cycles from birth to mating to death, and aligning these cycles with your schedule, considering life's seasonal nature. Additionally, conducting a risk analysis is essential. What if you can't collect the necessary samples? What if the budget falls short? What if the collection window passes due to unforeseen circumstances like illness, such as one's own COVID-19 illness? Developing a contingency plan becomes pivotal to ensure resilience in achieving your objectives.

Any such survey practice has huge stakes and should certainly ensure the accuracy, reliability, and moral conduct towards wildlife. Beyond the planning methodology, data recording/ analysis and reporting, ethical practices are the key in any such project. Sponsors need to prioritise animal welfare, minimize disturbance, and adhere to legal and ethical guidelines to ensure harmony.

Como todo proyecto se necesita definir sus objetivos y su alcance. También es necesario definir como lo vas a llevar a cabo y con que recursos cuentas. El tiempo que va a durar también debe ser fijado, es posible que necesites esponsors, deben conocer la duración. Debes planificar cuando realizar las observaciones, las condiciones meterológicas pueden retrasar tu planificación. También debes dedicir si vas a publicar tu estudio, para saber las condiciones de la publicación.

A successful wildlife survey should start by setting a good plan putting all ideas together. -What are your objectives and goals ? These are the keys of good survey approach. -Where is the survey area? You have to define a good survey area for your survey. -Which season is favorable to collect data? The choice of the good season is also more important for data collection especially for savannah areas for example. -Which specific methods to use? It is more important to choose a specific methods for a specific ecosystem. -What is the next after data collection? The database analysis should help for good reporting and decision making of the ecosystem management. -The budget and resources should carefully been calculated and available

Al grano! Objetivos: 1 - Identificar las especies en ese territorio. 2 - Evaluar el estado de conservación de las especies. 3 - Entender como las especies interactúan con su entorno. 4 - Desarrollar estrategias de conservación. Espero te sirva.

Crafting Successful Wildlife Surveys: Methodology Matters! Tailor your approach to objectives by selecting the most suitable methods—camera traps, transects, quadrats, point counts, and more. Consider factors like accuracy, precision, feasibility, and ethics. Consult guidelines and protocols, ensuring permits and equipment are in order. Let's collaborate to advance wildlife research, making informed decisions for conservation and biodiversity. #WildlifeResearch #ConservationScience #CollaborativeResearch

You need to choose the most appropriate method given cost and materials available. It needs to be able to produce the results you want but alternatively could be used to highlight the need for better study and better funding. Stage II of the project.

In an ideal world with infinite resources, I would employ all methods. However, in the real and rational world, time and money is limited. Thus selecting the right method is the key. An approach to the selection can be prioritising the methodologies based on feasibility, cost and applicability. It is important to keep in mind that conducting survey to get the data is just one part. Analysing the same is another ball game, and it is will only get more complex with increasing volume of data. Good data quality and optimum volume are key to an efficient analysis. And all of it depends on selecting the right method.

Also select the appropriate survey area. The survey area should be large enough to provide a representative sample of the wildlife population, while also being manageable in terms of time and resources. It is essential to consider factors such as habitat type, accessibility, and the distribution of the species when selecting the survey area.

Consider ways to include your community in your research. Beyond soliciting members of your community as volunteers for data collection, what can local community members offer your wildlife survey through their regional expertise and generational knowledge? From the suburbs of Chicago to a village in the rainforest, I have found that locals have a lot of valuable input when it comes to conservation and wildlife surveying but gaining that insight meant being humble and welcoming their contributions.

Plan plan plan - I like to think of it as movie script; Get all the details of the who what where and when ahead of the field date. Then, when the day finally comes and you are live, in action working, you will have a solid guide to go off of. There have been times I started to question the pre thought out plan in the moment, but realized it was just anxiety. We proceeded to stick the plan, and it worked! Good luck

Methods are important and have to be based on acceptable practice. Field visits are really not ideal but often in many places how it has to be. It ideally should be field residency periods. You need to stay in the area. Work when weather allows and establish local working relationships. Risk assessment, each study may have unique risks these maybe obvious to those working there but interns or new recruits may not be aware of these at all and be academically excellent but not familiar with work in the field.

Planning is key as you would not want to overrun your timelines. Having the right resources identified is important. They should be well versed with the subject and with the method of the survey. Identification of the sample and its size is important as that would largely impact the quality of data received. It is prudent to have a prior risk assessment and proper mitigation plan prepared so as to avoid any unforeseen issues. The planning will be largely governed by the objective set and the method selected. It needs to be meticulously done with time well spent, in order to ensure a smooth execution.

This part can be meticulous and mentally challenging. Take your time with collecting and recording the data. Plan enough hours to not have to rush, if possible. When I am inspecting the health of trees during our QA program, sometimes I have to look at 30-50-80 trees in a day. That’s a lot of repetition in asking the same questions for each individual tree. On a good day, I start early, make sure I have plenty of water, and take it one step at a time. For this example, the attributes are preplanned and I just follow the “script” for the day’s observational goals.

It is also important to collect data on hunting levels, this may shed light on the prevalence or not of some species in the environment. For this purpose, the number of licensed hunters should be noted. If this data is not available, signs of hunting, like bullet shells should be recorded. In some cases, the local communities may offer the team, data on the number of hunters, traditional hunting seasons, levels of poaching, traditionally protected species, e.t.c. The need to conduct strong community engagements ahead of data collection is therefore imperative.

Advices are more helpful for collecting data,and techniques involved in redefining research work and new information and new assignments.

If you get your methods right and plan your fieldwork well, you should be able to easily gather the data from your sample. However, where most surveys fail is that they fall into the trap of bias. Sample should be random enough to cater to the survey objective without any bias. For instance, in case of a wildlife survey, a typical bias could of the perception of the origin of a particular wildlife or its population in a particular area based on perception.

Consistently log data and analyze it, log any preliminary work carefully in assessment to save doing it again. The result is what it is but it is important to look at it from different perspectives

You should always review your data and look at outliers. Ask yourself are these true representations of the data or was there an error that drove these data points. When analyzing data remember that correlation does not always prove causation, ask if is possible that a third data point you did not collect is driving the two that seem related.

I highly recommend HubSpot for the reporting. Its centralized data management, customizable reports, and visual tools make complex data accessible and engaging. Plus, its automation and collaboration features save time and enhance communication. HubSpot isn't just a tool; it's a game-changer for presenting findings effectively.

I think the last step should not be the last one. It's an ongoing process. Share the periodical comparisons based on certain criteria.