Abundancia de ginetas (Genetta genetta) en un encinar mediterráneo. Estimación mediante trampeo fotográfico

Abstract

Knowledge of the population dynamics of Iberian carnivores is still poor, despite the importance of this knowledge in the proper management of the environment. Camera-trapping has evolved greatly and has expanded as a detection method and for obtaining biological and ecological parameters of carnivores, because it is widely applicable and non-invasive. This technique has been successfully used in a variety of species for census and to establish relative abundance. In the present study, our results provide estimates of the density of genets by camera-trapping in a typical Mediterranean forest dominated by oaks (Quercus ilex) and small patches of Aleppo (Pinus halepensis), Scots (Pinus sylvestris) and black pine (Pinus nigra salzmannii) on a limestone substrate. During the summer of 2008 sampling was conducted in the Sant Llorenç del Munt i L’Obac Natural Park, located in the province of Barcelona, north east Spain. A total of 12 camera traps, arranged in a grid, worked simultaneously for 6 weeks. Each week, we checked the proper functioning of the equipment and renewed the bait (tuna cans with vegetable oil). The effective sampling effort was 418 trapdays and 705 photographs were obtained of 494 animals, including 17 of genets. Applying the methodology for estimating densities and using photographic capture-recapture data we obtained densities of 0.64± 0.19 individuals/km2 by the estimator M0 and 0.85± 0.27 genets/km2 with Mh estimator. Considering these results, camera-trapping appears to be the optimal method for estimating densities and recording other aspects of the ecology of carnivores which are easily identified by photographic records, such as the genet.