Estimating Alpine ibex C apra ibex abundance from photographic sampling.

Monitoring procedures for Alpine ibex C apra ibex are limited in habitats with reduced visibility and when physical capture and marking of the animals is not intended. Photographic sampling, involving using camera-trap data and identifying ibex from natural markings, was adopted with capture-recapture models to estimate the abundance of ibex in Austria. The software CAPTURE's model produced an average capture probability of 0.44 with an estimate of 34-51 ibex and a mean population size of 38 ibex. This first study showed the applicability of photographic capture-recapture techniques to estimate the abundance of ibex based on their natural markings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]