Monitorización de poblaciones de tetraónidos en los Pirineos mediante métodos no invasivos

Resum

The western capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) and the rock ptarmigan (Lagopus muta) are two tetraonid species that were isolated in the southern European mountain ranges after the last glaciations. During the last years, few studies have been carried out to evaluate the efficiency and accuracy of the methodologies used to estimate population size of these birds. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the available methodologies to estimate the abundance of individuals of these species, and to propose alternative and more precise estimation methods. In general, the non-invasive sampling and genetic analysis methodology developed in this study allows to estimate more precisely and with less bias the demographic parameters (number of specimens and sex ratio) than the traditionally employed methodologies (song counts, hunting bag data).