Developing a DNA-Based Population Estimator for Wolves in Southeast Alaska. Research Performance Report, 1 July 1998-30 June 1999

摘要

The objective of our research during this reporting period was to produce a detailed proposal for the development of a method to estimate populations of wolves in Southeast Alaska. We reviewed a number of different methods including aerial counts, track surveys, the use of biomarkers, and DNA-based techniques. We chose to experiment with a DNA-based mark-resight method because we believe that it may be the most feasible and cost-effective of the methods that we explored. We also are able to test the key assumptions associated with the method. We propose to extract the DNA of wolves from their feces and identify individuals using DNA fingerprinting techniques. These data will be analyzed using a Bayesian mark-resight population estimation model.