Monitoring techniques that are non‐invasive and use evidence of target species presence are particularly useful, especially for rare or highly dispersed species. We developed and tested a technique using DNA extracted from scats in conjunction with spatially explicit capture‐recapture (SECR) analyses to monitor the abundance of greater bilbies (Macrotis lagotis) within wild and reintroduced populations in Western Australia, and verified its application against a recently reintroduced founding population. The greater bilby is an iconic threatened species and the focus of conservation management, but no efficient and reliable method to monitor their abundance has been implemented. Estimated abundance using our method (21 ± 5 [SE]), was close to the founding population at Mount Gibson (16). Wild populations monitored from 2013–2018 were relatively small, isolated, and particularly vulnerable to threats; 2 populations were extirpated during this study. A reintroduced population at Matuwa increased sevenfold over 9 years. We demonstrate that when threats are managed appropriately across a large area, and bilbies are reintroduced, they can rapidly increase in number without the need for predator exclusion fencing. © 2020 The Wildlife Society.

中文翻译：

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监视野生和重新引入的比尔比种群的数量

非侵入性监测技术并使用目标物种存在的证据特别有用，特别是对于稀有或高度分散的物种。我们开发并测试了一种技术，该技术使用从粪便中提取的DNA结合空间显式捕获捕获（SECR）分析来监视大型比目鱼（Macrotis lagotis）的丰度。）在西澳大利亚州的野生和再引入种群中进行了验证，并验证了其在最近再引入的新种群中的应用。更大的比比是标志性的受威胁物种，也是保护管理的重点，但尚未实施任何有效且可靠的方法来监控其数量。使用我们的方法估计的丰度（21±5 [SE]）接近吉布森山的建国人口（16）。2013-2018年监测的野生种群相对较小，孤立，特别容易受到威胁；在这项研究中，有2个种群被淘汰。在9年中，马图瓦（Matuwa）的重新引进人口增加了七倍。我们证明，在大范围内适当地管理威胁并重新引入比比尔时，它们的数量可以迅速增加，而无需捕食者隔离栅栏。©2020野生动物协会。