Benefits of Modelling Abundance for Rare Species Conservation: A Case Study With Multiple Birds Across One Million Hectares

• DOI: 10.1111/ddi.13956
• Publication Date: 2025-01-18T08:04:44Z
• Authors: Simon J. Verdon; Rhys Makdissi; William F. Mitchell; Rebecca L. Boulton; James Q. Radford
• Keywords: Rare species; Common species

ABSTRACT Aim Many management programs that are based on the needs of rare or threatened species ineffective because they fail to collect enough data reliably estimate abundance and map distributions for their target species. Information does exist is often presence‐only data, it difficult sufficient such We targeted 10 bird were excluded from a recent study due insufficient data. For these species, we aimed (a) (b) identify important locations (c) population sizes. Location A large reserve system (~1 M‐ha) in south‐eastern Australia. Methods undertook intensive field surveys, using repeat area searches 660 independent 25‐ha sites, totalling 2640 hours surveys (2‐h surveys; two per site). used N‐mixture models whilst accounting imperfect detection. Results This survey effort returned high‐quality nine To illustrate potential applications mapped locations, our results assess likely impact planned burn program part region. identified burns have significant may not otherwise been identified. Populations generally larger than previously estimated expert opinion. example, Red‐lored Whistler ( Pachycephala rufogularis ) was ~16 times previous estimate. Main Conclusions Our show benefits value developing bespoke methods estimating with low detectability pathway application conservation land management.