Hide menu

Animals observation method

The line-transect method is fully described by Buckland et al. (1993) A one kilometre long transect was driven and all animals within 150 meters left and right were recorded, species and behaviour. Hence, since the transect width was truncated at 150m on both sides, it covered 1000 x 300 m or 0.3 km 2 . 150m was set as the maximum distance visible on each side of the track.

Distance and angle to the animals using a range master (Leica LRF 1200 scan) and a home-made angle board was determined. Temperature and humidity was collected with a temperature meter Center 313 (RH+/- 2, 5% T +/- 0, 7 ° C).Weather was recorded as sunny, cloudy, and sunny to cloudy; no observations were carried out during rain.

Sampling was carried out using the centre of a herd or the position of a single animal as the centre of the sampling plot. Number and behaviour of all animals on a transect were counted once per animal and drive. Cars and cattle were also recorded up to a distance of 300 meters from the transect line.

All transects were driven once during daylight hours, between 6:30 am to 18:30 pm , resulting in 12 drives per season and transect, in total 432 drives. These drives were spread out over an observation period of 17 days (22nd of January to 10th of February 2005). Each transect was usually driven maximal once per day to spread the drives equally over the observation period. The observation team consisted of one driver, one navigator with a GPS in the car, and one writer also with a GPS and one observer on car seats fixed on the car roof. Maximum speed during observational drives was 12 km/h.


Responsible for this page: Director of undergraduate studies Biology
Last updated: 05/23/05