Measuring and Monitoring Biological Diversity: Standard Methods for Mammals

Measuring and Monitoring Biological Diversity: Standard Methods for Mammals provides a comprehensive manual for designing and implementing inventories of mammalian biodiversity anywhere in the world and for any group, from rodents to open-country grazers. The book emphasizes formal estimation approaches, which supply data that can be compared across habitats and over time. Beginning with brief natural histories of the twenty-six orders of living mammals, the book details the field techniques—observation, capture, and sign interpretation—appropriate to different species. The contributors provide guidelines for study design, discuss survey planning, describe statistical techniques, and outline methods of translating field data into electronic formats. Extensive appendixes address such issues as the ethical treatment of animals in research, human health concerns, preserving voucher specimens, and assessing age, sex, and reproductive condition in mammals.

Useful in both developed and developing countries, this volume and the Biological Diversity Handbook Series as a whole establish essential standards for a key aspect of conservation biology and resource management.

Don E. Wilson is director for biodiversity programs at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. F. Russell Cole is Oak Professor of Biological Sciences in the Department of Biology, Colby College. James D. Nichols is a research biologist with the National Biological Service, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. Rasanayagam Rudran is a conservation training officer with the National Zoological Park. Mercedes S. Foster is a research zoologist and curator of birds with the National Biological Service, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.