Optimization of photographic capture-recapture technique for estimation of free canine population in public roads / Otimização da técnica de captura-recaptura fotográfica para estimação da população canina livre em vias públicas

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2008

RESUMO

The dog is one of the most popular pet in the world. However, if this population is out of control, injuries against human beings, other animals and environment can occur. Therefore, studies related to dog population are important in order to optimize methods and strategies of control. The main objectives of this research are evaluating the photo-identification technique for dogs and presenting a suggestion to improve the photographic capturerecapture method. For this, pictures of dogs were acquired from two different sources. One of them was the Zoonosis Control Center (ZCC) gold standard and the other one were the free dogs from Ibiúna City streets. The dogs from ZCC were photographed following four protocols. Therefore, I obtained four photographic catalogs. The difference between these catalogs was the visualization of dog´s physical characterestics and the necessary number of pictures (one to four) to present each animal. Second, a survey of free dogs in the Ibiúna City had been carried out during three days. Each dog found in the streets was photographed and, after that, the pictures were classified according to the model of catalogs acquired from ZCC dogs pictures. Finally, 103 volunteers observed set of pairs of pictures (both ZCC and streets) by means of Internet and pointed which of them were from the same dogs. In addition, the dog population was estimated by following the classical capture-recapture method. Considering the results from the ZCC pictures observation, the correctly identifying and distinguishing dogs probabilities by means of pictures (for the volunteer) was 95,0% and 99,8%, respectively. In this case, the kappa value between these volunteers results and the gold standard was 0,963. Using the calculated probabilities from the gold standard, the estimated population (N) was adjusted to about 65 animals (C.I. 95% 64 to 67 animals). The estimation of the probabilities from the gold standard was interesting for adjusting the calculated (N) and improving the precision

ASSUNTO(S)

population estimates photography estimativas de população técnicas de estimativa cães fotografia dog estimation techniques

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