Population size of lions in Yankari Game Reserve as revealed by faecal DNA sampling |
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Authors: | Talatu Tende Ulf Ottosson Bengt Hansson Mikael Åkesson Staffan Bensch |
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Institution: | 1. A.P. Leventis Ornithological Research Institute, P.O. Box 13404, Jos, Nigeria;2. Department of Animal Ecology, Lund University, Ecology Building, SE‐223 62 Lund, Sweden |
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Abstract: | Studies have shown that lion (Panthera leo) populations in West Africa are small, isolated and fragmented. In Nigeria, lions have disappeared from unprotected areas and are nowadays found only in parks and reserves where these populations may still decline. It is therefore urgent to obtain reliable estimates of population sizes at different localities. Direct observational surveys may either fail to count all individuals or count some individuals repeatedly and are therefore associated with unknown levels of estimation errors. More accurate estimates can be obtained if direct counting is combined with DNA‐based individual identification. As lions are difficult to identify individually, presented here is a method that can be a valuable addition to the existing census methods. |
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Keywords: | African lion faecal DNA isolated population noninvasive sampling |
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