Large Predators

Due to their cryptic nature, predators cannot be adequately counted from the air in woodland or savanna habitats.

For this reason, lion, cheetah, and wild dog numbers have been estimated from known groups (or individuals) and spoor counts, and leopard numbers from spoor counts and by using data from baited-camera traps in mark-recapture models.

Although hyenas function as a clan at the den site, they normally split up to hunt, making it impossible to develop knowledge of groups from casual sightings. In addition, unlike leopards and cheetahs, they do not have coats with easily identifiable spot patterns, so mark-recapture methods cannot be used. For these reasons, the size of the hyena population has been estimated from spoor counts.