Use of the Lincoln Index Mark-Recapture Method to Estimate the Population Densities for Harvestable Yabbies, Cherax destructor, in Grow-Out Ponds

Abstract

The Lin coln In dex mark-re cap ture method was eval u ated for its ac cu racy in es ti mat ing the num ber of harvestable yab bies, Cherax de struc tor, in earthen ponds. Where a sin gle re cap ture event was used to es ti mate the pop u la tion, a 3 to 6 day in ter val be tween the re lease and recap ture of marked an i mals tended to pro vide a more re li able es ti mate than a re lease and re cap ture in ter val of 24 hours. Where two re cap ture events were used to pro vide an av er age es ti mate, the method tended to un der es ti mate by 20% low den sity pop u la tions, that had been the sub ject of pre da tion by wa ter birds, whereas those es ti mates de ter mined f o r ponds with higher den si ties of cray fish, where avian piscivores were excluded, tended to be more ac cu rate (±10%). The ap pli ca tion of pop u la tion es ti ma tion as a tool for ar ti fi cial feed-man age ment is dis cussed.