Estimating Population Density of the White-Tailed Deer in Finland using Non-Invasive Genetic Sampling and Spatial Capture–Recapture

The white-tailed deer is an important game species in Finland. We evaluated the potential of estimating the white-tailed deer pre-harvest density using non-invasive DNA collection within a spatial capture–recapture (SCR) framework. We sampled faeces during three weekly visits in autumn 2015 from 180, 20 × 20 m plots clustered in groups of four. Individual identification was based on 12–14 microsatellites. Of the 245 faecal samples collected, an...