Evaluation of spotlight and road-kill surveys as indicators of local raccoon abundance

摘要: Spotlight and road-kill surveys are often used by state agencies managers to monitor raccoon (Procyon lotor) populations. However, the ability of these techniques accurately reflect population abundance has not been evaluated. I compared spotlight counts indices patterns as estimated from mark-recapture data for 3 populations in northeastern Illinois. In general, reflected inter-population differences density. there were between live-trapping 2 high-density Both survey strongly (r≥0.85) correlated with annual trends capture rates populations, a similar pattern occurred density estimates. detected manipulated reduction 50% 1 population. useful monitoring changes local raccoons, but they must be caution when comparing among different habitat characteristics or evaluating low-density