5 research outputs found
Using infrared imagery to estimate white-tailed deer populations on the Pine Bluff Arsenal
Military installations present unique challenges to natural resource managers managing wildlife populations. For those species that are hunted or trapped, it is important to provide data to these installations for achieving sustainable harvests. Pine Bluff Arsenal (PBA), a military installation in southeastern Arkansas, manages for a host of wildlife species including white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). However, baseline data regarding population size for deer are lacking. We used infrared technology and distance sampling to estimate the size of the winter, post-harvest deer population on PBA. We identified 9 competing models. The best model provided an estimate of density of 0.245 deer/ha (CV = 43%) with a mean group size of 3.3 deer. This density estimate will serve as a baseline value for evaluating future management actions