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- Title
A systematic approach to estimate the distribution and total abundance of British mammals.
- Authors
Croft, Simon; Chauvenet, Alienor L. M.; Smith, Graham C.
- Abstract
Robust policy decisions regarding the protection and management of terrestrial mammals require knowledge of where species are and in what numbers. The last comprehensive review, presenting absolute estimates at a national scale, was published nearly 20 years ago and was largely based on expert opinion. We investigated and propose a systematic data driven approach combing publically available occurrence data with published density estimates to predict species distribution maps and derive total abundance figures for all terrestrial mammals inhabiting Britain. Our findings suggest that the methodology has potential; generally producing plausible predictions consistent with existing information. However, inconsistencies in the availability and recording of data impact the certainty of this output limiting its current application for policy. Restrictions on access and use of occurrence data at a local level produces “data deserts” for which models cannot compensate. This leads to gaps in spatial distribution of species and consequently underestimates abundance. For many species the limited number of geo-referenced densities hampered the extrapolation from habitat suitability to absolute abundance. Even for well-studied species, further density estimates are required. Many density estimates used were pre-1995 and therefore the derived abundance should not be considered a current estimate. To maximise a systematic approach in the future we make the following recommendations:
- Subjects
MAMMAL populations; WILDLIFE management; WILDLIFE conservation; MAMMAL ecology; SPECIES distribution; ANIMAL species
- Publication
PLoS ONE, 2017, Vol 12, Issue 6, p1
- ISSN
1932-6203
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0176339