The general objective of this workshop is to give wildlife managers, ecologists and statisticians a solid grounding in the basic methods for design and analysis of distance sampling surveys. Teaching will be a combination of lectures, computer sessions and discussion groups. The course is intended for scientists who are carrying out population assessments of wildlife. We anticipate a mix of marine and terrestrial mammalogists, ornithologists and fisheries biologists, plus statisticians who have an interest in the topic. Some familiarity with the concepts of line or point transect sampling would be an advantage, although no prior knowledge of these topics is assumed.
Participants are welcome to bring their own portable computers.
The workshop will concentrate primarily on line and point transect sampling. The concepts of distance sampling will be explained and the assumptions of the methods discussed. Although the basic theory will be covered, the focus of the workshop will be on practical application of the methods. The underlying theory and assumptions of both line and point transect sampling will be covered, and the relative merits of the two approaches in different circumstances discussed. Computer sessions will follow, to train participants in the use of Distance for straightforward data sets.