A Test Of Track Counts As A Measurement Of Deer Population Size

Three 160 acre deer enclosures were stocked with 2, 4, and 8 deer respectively. Track counts were made simultaneously on prepared surfaces in the enclosures. It was found that the track counts were not directly proportional to population size. Thus it appears that track counts are not a valid measurement of population size, if a linear relationship through the origin between population size and number of tracks is assumed. The track counts were able to detect that there were differences in population size, but it did not tell us the magnitude of this difference.