Monitoring Why

Informed species conservation and management must be based on reliable information about its distribution, abundance, population trends and possibly more detailed demographic information such as survival probabilities and recruitment rates as well as health status. The type of management required depends on management goals as well as on the status of a population, whether managers deal with an established and viable population, with single individuals at an expansion front, or with a population that may be facing extinction. Monitoring the dynamics of a population is therefore a crucial part of management.