Precise estimates of population size are important for the proper conservation and management of species but are often difficult to obtain.
Several methods are available to estimate population size, but most researchers use only 1 method, which makes resulting estimates subject to inherent biases.
Individual identification using photographic captur.
This work was motivated by the need for an assessment of the current status of Masai giraffes in Tanzania.
Our study is the 1st large-scale attempt to determine a correction factor for aerial surveys of giraffes in the country.
Aerial surveys represent a basic and important tool for monitoring large mammal populations over very large areas ( Stoner.
The giraffe and okapi sequence data were also used to generate a draft genome assembly with a total length of 2.9 and 3.3 Gb for giraffe and okapi, respectively (Supplementary Table 2).
Study Area
We collected 503 distance data records of adult giraffe groups (TNP = 307, MRC = 111, LGCA = 43, and MGCA = 42).
From PCMR data, we produced encounter histories for 1,347 individually recognizable adult giraffes.
SRF observers detected 82 giraffes.
The emerging field of animal biometrics is on the verge of providing powerful tools for field practitioners, ecologists, and researchers to use to collect and process phenotypic appearance information on species, individuals, their behavior, and morphology, in a standardized way and for a broad spectrum of applications.
Additionally, we retrieved publicly available paired-end read data of a Kordofan giraffe (GenBank:
D.R.C. coordinated the project, performed enhanced gene annotations, performed the dN/dS screen and pathway enrichment analyses, and identified and collated the set of MSA genes.
H.R. provided the Nashville Zoo (NZOO) giraffe tissues samples.
L.P. provided the okapi tissue samples.
M.A. provided the MA1 giraffe genomic DNA samples.
