This dataset comprises dung count line transect data from a survey conducted in the Batanga swamps, Lac Télé, Republic of the Congo, in Mar - May 2012. The survey estimated an elephant population of 104 (95% c.i. 32 - 338) within the 1 029 km² survey area. The study was a follow-up to a survey in the same area conducted in 2007 (Rainey et al. 2009), and followed the same methodology. There was no significant change in the density of elephants between the two survey dates.
29 x 2 km transects were walked, totalling 58 km in a single stratum. Dung density was estimated as 102 per km² (95% c.i. 31 - 332; CV 63%) at an encounter rate of 0.93 per km (95% c.i. 0.46-3.87).
A dung decay rate of 51.3 days was adopted from Breuer and Hockemba's 2007 study conducted in the adjacent Nouabale-Ndoki area, while a defecation rate of 19.76 was used from Tchamba (1992).
Source:Iyenguet, F. C., Madzoké, B., Twagirashyaka, F., Maisels, F., Strindberg, S., Bomomo, V., & Elondza, D. E. (2012). WCS Congo Program: Great Ape Conservation and Monitoring in the Lac Télé Landscape (p. 51). Wildlife Conservation Society and USFWS.
