Estimating abundance of striped hyenas ( Hyaena hyaena ) in the Negev Desert of Israel using camera traps and closed capture–recapture models

Estimating key state variables (e.g., abundance/density) of threatened/endangered species is a difficult yet crucial task. These variables are essential for wildlife conservationists/managers to assess the current states and trends of target populations and make state-dependent management decisions. We estimated, using camera traps and two different methodologies, the abundance of the near-threatened striped hyena ( Hyaena hyaena ) in the Negev Highlands, Israel. Both the traditional closed capture–recapture (closed-CR) and the census/near-census frameworks (both rely on closed CR models) were employed. For attaining a census/near census, we calculated a range of plausible capture/detection probabilities and their combinations with sampling durations that would result in detection of ≥95