Properties of Estimators of Wildlife Population Density for the Line Transect Method
J. L. Kovner, S. A. Patil · Biometrics · 1974
In the present note we study the performance of various estimators of wildlife population density which have appeared in the literature; these have been discussed in detail by Gates [1969]. We assume, following Gates et al. [1968], a random distribution of individual animals and the probability of an animal being seen at a given right angle distance as exponential. Estimators are compared under the assumption that the sample size, n, is fixed. We discuss the estimator for X. The relative merits of various existing estimators are studied. In a few cases, estimators are modified so as to give an unbiased and consistent estimator of X. The one proposed by Gates, which is based on the reciprocal of the mean distance, is shown to be the best in the sense of minimum variance; accordingly the efficiency of the others is compared with this one.