Summary and reflection

A brief review of this module

Take a minute to reflect on what you’ve just learnt

In this module we’ve focused on the fundamental theory underlying distance sampling:

• Density (number of animals per unit area) is a state variable that has many uses in conservation
• It’s very rare to be 100% certain that you will detect every individual during each surveys, so we estimate probability of detection by conducting multiple surveys
• Field data represent the distance to each animal from the transect line.  These observations allow us to estimate the shape of the detection function, and therefore the proportion of the population that was detected

🤔 Reflection: Minute questions

Ruby Wang, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Take one minute to reflect on and answer the following questions