Species identification problems during fruit bat surveys in American Samoa
Craig P. 1992. Species identification problems during fruit bat surveys in American Samoa. Department of Marine & Wildlife Resources Biological Report Series. No. 25. Dept. of Marine & Wildlife Resources. American Samoa Government. Pago Pago, AS
Examines how consistent observers are in their species identification of bats sighted during Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources' daytime surveys. During the study, five observers independently identified the same group of 200 bats under typical field conditions. All five agreed on the identification of individual bats only 37% of the time; although consistency was higher when the bats were considered as a group instead of individual units. Recommends that surveys of daytime-active fruit bats in American Samoa apply an error rate of at least +/- 18% for Pteropus samoensis and +/- 4% for P. tonganus.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Craig, Peter
- Date of Issue
- 1992
- Publisher
- Dept. of Marine & Wildlife Resources. American Samoa Government
- Units
- NPSA , PACN
- Keywords
- American Samoa, Animal Studies, Samoan Fruit Bat (Pteropus samoensis), Species Identification, Tongan fruit bat (Pteropus tonganus)