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Camera Traps Tracked Mountain Goats Closely Enough to Count

A winter relative-abundance index agreed with direct bezoar-goat estimates in rugged South Caucasus terrain.

Published Updated Story ID: mp-2026-08-04-016
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Summary

A winter relative-abundance index agreed with direct bezoar-goat estimates in rugged South Caucasus terrain.

Matched camera and field counts from 5-by-5-kilometer cells in 2018, 2019 and 2022 showed a strong positive relationship. The result supports lower-cost winter monitoring in comparable terrain, not an assumption that the index transfers unchanged to every species or season.

Why it matters

A winter relative-abundance index agreed with direct bezoar-goat estimates in rugged South Caucasus terrain.

Limits and context

  • The result supports lower-cost winter monitoring in comparable terrain, not an assumption that the index transfers unchanged to every species or season.

Key claims

  1. A winter relative-abundance index agreed with direct bezoar-goat estimates in rugged South Caucasus terrain.

    Qualification: The result supports lower-cost winter monitoring in comparable terrain, not an assumption that the index transfers unchanged to every species or season.

    Evidence: source-2026-08-04-018

Sources

  1. Conservation Science and Practice: camera-trap abundance proxy for bezoar goatsWiley · secondary reporting

Corrections

No corrections have been recorded for this story.