The white‐tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is an ecologically important species in forests of North America. Effective management of forests requires accurate, precise estimates of deer population abundance to plan and justify management actions. Spotlight surveys in combination with distance sampling are a common method of estimating deer population abundance; however, spotlight surveys are known to have serious drawbacks such as high costs and sampling biases. Therefore, we tested the effectiveness of enumerating deer from unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flights, conducted 1 and 6 March 2018, to develop population and density estimates in 2 United States National Parks: Harpers Ferry National Historic Park (HAFE) and Monocacy National Battlefield (MONO). Concurrent spotlight surveys at MONO enabled us to compare estimates obtained by the 2 methods. Deer density estimates by 4 observers of UAV‐obtained thermal imagery from HAFE were 94.5 ± 3.9 deer/km². Concurrent UAV and spotlight surveys at MONO found 19.7 ± 0.5 deer/km² and 6.4 ± 4.9 deer/km², respectively; suggesting that spotlight surveys may significantly underestimate deer densities. Despite the logistical challenges to UAV operation, our findings demonstrate that UAVs will become an invaluable tool for wildlife management as technology improves. © 2021 The Wildlife Society. This article has been contributed to by US Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.

中文翻译：

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使用无人飞行器枚举白尾鹿

白尾鹿（Odocoileus virginianus）是北美森林中的重要生态物种。有效的森林管理需要准确，准确地估计鹿群的数量，以计划和证明管理措施的合理性。聚光灯调查与距离采样相结合是估算鹿种群数量的一种常用方法。但是，众所周知，聚光灯调查存在严重的缺陷，例如成本高和抽样偏差。因此，我们测试了从2018年3月1日至6日进行的无人飞行器（UAV）航班枚举鹿的有效性，以得出两个美国国家公园（哈珀斯·费里国家历史公园（HAFE）和Monocacy国家战场）的人口和密度估计（单核细胞增多症）。同时在MONO进行的聚光灯调查使我们能够比较通过两种方法获得的估计值。²。同时在MONO进行的无人机和聚光灯调查发现，分别为19.7±0.5鹿/ km ²和6.4±4.9鹿/ km ²。这表明聚光灯调查可能会大大低估鹿的密度。尽管无人机操作在后勤方面面临挑战，但我们的发现表明，随着技术的进步，无人机将成为野生动植物管理的宝贵工具。©2021野生动物协会。本文由美国政府雇员提供，他们的工作属于美国的公共领域。