Surveying Methods by Holly Hackney https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying Pros and Cons en-us 2019-01-28 09:41:03 UTC 2025-03-25 15:53:10 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Xmastree.png Tracking https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324862767 Pros:
- Non-invasive
- Physical evidence
- Less stress on animals
- Little disturbance on habitat
Cons:
- Time consuming (long days, up early and till late)
- Might not always find what you're looking for
- Equipment might be expensive
- Travel far
- Few species observations can be done
Equipment:
- hiking boots
- camera equipment maybe
- Sun cream and a hat
- other people - in case of injury
- sampling pots and stuff (faeces etc)
- appropriate clothing
- tweezers


]]> 2019-01-28 11:32:26 UTC https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324862767 Light Traps https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324862861 Pros:
  • Effective & simple
  • Not time-consuming
  • Solar power lamp; good for environment
Cons:
  • Prevents animals from exhibiting natural behaviour; focused on light
  • Will need to observe for a while (Could buy camera but thats £££)
  • Birds could eat the insects
  • Can attract unwanted animals
  • imo moths are annoying: they cant even fly properly (dont write this in the synoptic xoxo)
Equipment
  • Light
  • Camera
  • Electricty 
  • ID book/sheet
]]> 2019-01-28 11:32:51 UTC https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324862861 Quadrats https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324862922 Equipment needed:
- People
- Quadrats
- Magnifying glass
- ID book
- Writing equipment
- Camera
Pros:
- They help researchers to find out different animal populations, over a larger area.
- They are inexpensive, relatively easy to design and adaptable for studying uneven populations.
- Work well for observing changes to whole populations overtime, including nesting and overall health.
- Isn’t too avasive to both the wildlife and their habitat
- Animals are trapped within the quadrat, therefore cannot escape.
Cons:
- Quadrats that are too big/small or spaced inappropriately, often result in errors.
Randomly spaced quadrats that are too small, might miss too many individuals.
- Quadrat sampling can be physically demanding. 
- If placing the quadrats randomly, there is a chance you may not find any wildlife within your quadrats. 
- May be hard to count the wildlife found, especially so if they are moving around or in long grass. ]]> 2019-01-28 11:33:07 UTC https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324862922 Live trapping https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863071 Pros - you’re able to health check the animals to see what state they’re in
Keep record of the animals caught/tagged
You can tag them
Could put a tracker on them

Cons- stressful for the animal
Disturbs the animals
Need training to be able to do it well
Could injure the animals
Jacob doesn’t approve

Equipment -
Traps
Tags/trackers/paint/razor
Recording devise (eg. Chart, tablet etc)
Camera (possibly)
A nice snack (sandwiches, kate, granola bar, coffee, Pepsi max, trail mix, banana chips, nakd bars, sandra’s Vegan chocolate cake (ily Sandra)
A collective of humans to help




]]> 2019-01-28 11:33:37 UTC https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863071 Spraint (droppings) https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863131 Pros :
• there is a chance to see elusive animals, e.g. otters.
• it doesn’t disturb animals
• it doesn’t cost a lot
Cons :
• no guarantee you will find anything(faeces & animals)
• you have to know how faeces look like
• can get boring after a while searching for long time
• weather can cause issues (e.g. wash away any faeces or footprints and scare away animals)
Equipment: 
• camera (to take pictures & videos) 
• booklet (to identify faeces ,animals) 
• camera traps (when you are not there ,camera will do job for you and it saves time) 
• magnifying glass (extra)

]]> 2019-01-28 11:33:49 UTC https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863131 Line Transects https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863242 Pros:
Large geographic areas can be potentially surveyed relatively inexpensively and nonobtrusively.

They provide a good way of being able to clearly visualise the changes taking place along the line

Quick - can do lots of samples at different points on the path – may give a better indication of what is going on.

Easy to carry out

Cons:
they do not produce much information on the relative density of individual species as a belt transects would do.

the line passed through the transect avoiding much of the dense vegetation – not a realistic indication.

could miss a rare and important species.  Possibly get over this by doing repeats.

No indication of changes in abundancy across the transect.

Equipment 

Measuring tape or nylon rope marked with 0.5 or 1 metre intervals]]> 2019-01-28 11:34:16 UTC https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863242 Pitfall traps https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863514 Pros- Animal can’t escape so you’re able to count them properly. They are simple and cheap. They have no moving parts. Do not kill the animals unless by accident. Can collect large numbers of animals. Are safe for the predator
Cons- if it rains, the trap can flood which risks the animal drowning as they are unable to escape.
Sometimes,people pour alcohol or other substances in the trap to kill any insects that fall in. Animals could fall into the trap and hurt themselves. They require de activating . They do not prevent trapped animals from killing eachother.
Equipment- shovel, ]]> 2019-01-28 11:35:22 UTC https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863514 Transect point https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863557 Pros 
  • Confirmation of seeing that animal alive 
Cons 
  • Not very reliable 
  • Could be a waste of time 
  • Time consuming 
  • Hard to identify or count 

Equiptment 
  • Banoculars 
  • Transport 
  • Chair 
  • Notes and pen
  • Food and drink and smokes 
  • ID book for species 


]]> 2019-01-28 11:35:32 UTC https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863557 Sweep Netting https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863660 Used to collect invertebrates (butterflies).
PROS-
cheep
good for collegecting large numbers
less invasive method
CONS-
may not be any
time consuming
injuries to animals
EQUIPMENT-
sweep net
magnifying glass
ID cards/book
data sheet
camera



]]> 2019-01-28 11:35:56 UTC https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863660 Kick sampling https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863869 Pros
• Enables you to see what wildlife there is in that area
• Educated on what species live in that environment

Cons -
• Disturbs wildlife
• Disturb plant life
• Can cause animals to be killed
• Potential risk of bringing in disease/using chemicals on clothing could cause water contamination

Equipment -
• Big wellies                 
• Hand nets
• Tray
• Bucket
• Waterproof clothing 
• Recording equipment (camera, pen/paper, on phones)
• Car/transport

]]> 2019-01-28 11:36:32 UTC https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863869 Counting directly https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863904 Definition- simple method. Involves observation of animals and counting the species seen.
Pros
  • Easy to do
  • Don't need lots of people
  • Don't need to much equipment 
  • To be able to identify different species by just looking at them.
  • Can get a lot of data easily
  • Doesn't impact animals directly
Cons
  • Can be dangerous
  • Time consuming can waste lots of time
  • Can not be very productive
  • Struggle coping with the environment for extended periods of time.
  • Hard to see when environment has lots of fauna
  • Can count already seen animals as knew ones.
  • Might have to disturb environment to get to viewing areas.
Equipment
  • Binoculars (to easily see animals from far Equipment)
  • Camera (if can't easily identify animals take photos and refer back later)
  • Charts (to easily record species or size of populations)



]]> 2019-01-28 11:36:38 UTC https://padlet.com/HollyBrinsbury/Surveying/wish/324863904