Estimating Detection Probability and Abundance for the Black Caiman (Melanosuchus niger) and the Yacare Caiman (Caiman yacare)

The black caiman (Melanosuchus niger) and the yacare caiman (Caiman yacare) have in the past been exposed to overexploitation due to the economic profit for their hides, and therefore suffered from great declines in population sizes, especially black caimans. Legal regulation efforts made it possible for these two species to recover and today they are widely distributed in South America. Evaluation of protection and management of populations of top predators like these caimans depend on the ability to detect the animals. The probability of detecting a crocodile, or any animal, is affected by several factors such as habitat complexity and behaviour why it is of importance to acknowledge such matter in order to obtain reliable results for further implications. This study aims to investigate the detection probability and abundances in these two species as a contribution to the monitoring efforts at a local scale. Night counts were performed in Cedral lagoon located in the Beni region in Bolivia. By using the relation between marked animals and resightings of them, as well as the abundance estimate produced by the Lincoln-Petersen estimator, estimates of detection probabilities could be accounted for the total caiman population (black plus yacare caimans) and the black caiman population. Very low sighting probabilities (p = 0.03) were obtained when based on marked animals who tend to be more wary after a capture event. Those based on the L-P output were higher (total caiman population p = 0.15, black caimans p = 0.15). Population sizes were estimated to 25 ± 8.5 black caimans and 34 ± 12 caimans in total. The population size based on marked animals was 12 ± 25.4 caimans