Combining citizen science and recreational hunters to monitor exotic ungulates and native wildlife in a protected area of northeastern Argentina

Nicosia G. Rodríguez-Planes L.I. Maranta A.A. Morel A. Gürtler R.E.
December 2021 Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH

Biological Invasions
2021 #23 Issue 12 3687 - 3702 pp.

Monitoring wildlife population trends is essential for resource management and invasive species control, but monitoring data are hard to acquire. Citizen science projects may monitor species occurrence patterns in time and space in a cost-effective way. A systematic management program of exotic wild boar (Sus scrofa) and axis deer (Axis axis) in a protected area of northeastern Argentina (El Palmar National Park) provided a framework for implementing a wildlife monitoring system based on park-affiliated hunters. We assessed the level of agreement between three indices of relative abundance: hunter sightings and camera trapping for wild boar, axis deer, capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), brown brocket deer (Mazama guazoubira), and crab-eating and pampas foxes combined (Cerdocyon thous and (Lycalopex gymnocercus), and catch per unit effort (CPUE) for both exotic ungulates only. Most (74%) hunting parties participated in the monitoring program and contributed to its sustainability. Bland-Altman plots displayed large levels of agreement between methods across species, with larger systematic differences between sighting and camera-trapping indices for native species. Restricting camera-trapping to the same time window as hunter sightings substantially increased the agreement between methods across species. Sighting and CPUE indices revealed similar temporal trends and large variations in spatial patterns between species. Comparison of the number of sighted and killed exotic ungulates indicated that, on average, 17% of wild boar and 75% of axis deer escaped hunters. The three indices were appropriate metrics for management purposes and corroborated the sustained, high-level abundance of axis deer and low numbers of wild boar in recent years.

Axis deer , Citizen science , Invasive ungulates , Method agreement , Wild boar , Wildlife management

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Laboratorio de Eco-Epidemiología, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires, C1428EHA, Argentina
Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución de Buenos Aires (IEGEBA), CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires, C1428EHA, Argentina
Instituto de Ciencias Polares, Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Tierra del Fuego, Onas 450, Ushuaia, 9410, Argentina
Administración de Parques Nacionales, Parque Nacional El Palmar, Ruta Nac. 14, km 198, Ubajay, 3287, Entre Ríos, Argentina
Department of Ecology, Sheikh Khalifa Houbara Breeding Centre, Reneco International Wildlife Consultants LLC, Shymkent, 160023, Turkestan, Kazakhstan

Laboratorio de Eco-Epidemiología
Instituto de Ecología
Instituto de Ciencias Polares
Administración de Parques Nacionales
Department of Ecology

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