Use of radio tracking to improve the estimation by track counts of the relative abundance of red fox

Abstract

Radio tracking of red foxes Vulpes vulpes (Linnaeus, 1758) in Coto Donana (SW Spain) was used to obtain a correction factor to transform the number of fox trails crossing a transect into an index of relative abundance, expressed as individual foxes per km. Results prove that the patterns of fox movement and the transect position greatly influence the data obtained through track counts.