ANALYSIS OF THE ERROR OF A NEW OBSERVER IN AERIAL SURVEYS CENSUSES WITHOUT REPETITION

CRESPO, E. A.; SUEYRO, NICOLAS; COSCARELLA M A.

MASTOZOOLOGí­A NEOTROPICAL

UNIDAD DE ZOOLOGÍA Y ECOLOGÍA ANIMAL, INSTITUTO ARGENTINO DE INVESTIGACIÓN DE LAS ZONAS ARIDAS, CRICYT, CONICET

Lugar: Mendoza; Año: 2022 vol. 29

0327-9383

Abundance estimation by means of aerial surveys is prone to errors related to the observer’sperformance. We developed a monitoring method based on aerial surveys o_ the coastline for the Southern Right Whale (Eubalaena australis) in the breeding grounds of the Southwestern Atlantic. These surveys have been taking place since 1999, and whales have been counted by many di_erent observers meanwhile. This paper examines the in_uence of observer’s experience over whale counts within the GAM framework, and also determines how many _ights are needed for a new observer to be trained. We modeled the number of whales counted using the number of _ights performed as a proxy for the experience of the observers. Our results indicate that when inexperienced observers reach the _fth training _ight, they are able to provide counts similar to observers with high experience in this type of sampling. Finally, we evaluate the logistic and economic implications for the training.