A Comparison of Survey Techniques for Medium- to Large-sized Mammals in Forested Wetlands

Monitoring mammals is becoming increasingly important as state and federal agencies develop wildlife action plans addressing increased urbanization and climate-change impacts on plant and animal populations. We designed and implemented surveys applicable to forested wetlands to assess detection rates, estimate species richness, compare species distributions, and assess relative cost versus success among techniques. The survey techniques implemented included opportunistic observations, predator calling, spotlighting, scent stations, camera survey, and foothold trapping. Opportunistic observations produced the highest species-richness estimate (14), and were the least expensive ($0) because they were conducted while implementing other survey techniques. Trapping was the most expensive technique with a cost of $61 per animal detected but provided age structure and population estimates through mark-recapture analysis. Camera survey was relatively expensive with a cost of $1865 for the entire study period but recorded the most detections (n = 673), which resulted in a low per detection cost ($3). Opportunistic observations and camera surveys documented 2 species not detected by any other method. Our results indicate that, although camera survey was a cost-effective way to detect mammals, richness and distribution estimates could be improved by incorporating a variety of monitoring techniques specific to forested wetlands.