The Great Elephant Census Scientists at Work

Student Worksheet

OVERVIEW
This worksheet complements the short video “The Great Elephant Census” from the Scientists at Work series.

PROCEDURE
1. Prior to watching the video, read the questions below.
2. Watch the video.
3. If working with a partner or in a small group, discuss and answer the questions below. If working alone,
think about and answer the questions below.

QUESTIONS
1. What are the two main threats to African elephant populations?

Poaching and Habitat Loss and Fragmentation:

100
Scientists estimate that African elephants are being lost at a rate of ________/day.
2. What are two principal research questions that will be addressed by the Great Elephant Census?

What is the current population and distribution of African elephants?

How are elephant populations changing over time?

3. Logistics are the details that must be handled to plan and organize a complicated activity or event that
involves many people. Give three examples of logistics that the organizers of the census need to
address.

how they count each elephant, the transportation for the researchers, and how they will divide the survey areas.

4. How will the results from the project be used?

dictate where conservation efforts are focused for the elephants.

5. Dr. Mike Chase’s team has chosen to use a sample count method to estimate the total elephant
population size. Why did they choose sampling over a total count of each elephant?

Because counting each elephant would take to long

6. Accurate counts are critical because they are used to estimate the total population. List three things that
the researchers do to ensure accurate sample counts.

set area of to count, camera to count number of animals in area and laser to kept exact height throughout

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 Scientists at Work
The Great Elephant Census Student Worksheet
7. What technology is the team using to determine which elephants are inside and outside the strip?
What human limitation makes this necessary?

Cameras since people are really bad at splitting which elephants are in the set area

8. Apply what you learned from the film:

The Great Elephant Census involved over 100 scientists working in many countries. Within each country, they divided
survey areas into regions, called strata, of varying shapes and sizes. Teams then flew along transect lines to estimate
the number of elephants in each stratum. The dotted lines in the diagram represent the transects that a plane follows
during an aerial survey of each stratum. The counting strips are 150 meter-wide areas on either side of each transect
where elephants are counted. The following table shows the data that were collected for one stratum.

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 Scientists at Work
The Great Elephant Census Student Worksheet

Elephant
Width of Counting # of elephants density in
Transect counting strip strip area spotted in counting counting strip
Transect length (km) (km) (km2) strips (#/km2)
A 9.1 0.3 2.7 1 0.37

B 22.5 0.3 6.8 4 0.59

C 27.2 0.3 8.2 7 0.86

D 22.8 0.3 6.8 0 0

E 32 0.3 9.6 0 0

F 21.4 0.3 6.4 0 0

G 29.6 0.3 8.9 4 0.45

H 20.2 0.3 6.1 5 0.83

I 22 0.3 6.6 0 0

J 9.2 0.3 2.8 0 0

K 4.6 0.3 1.4 4 0.34

Average Elephant Density for Stratum (round to nearest hundredth) 0.31

a. Calculate the missing values in the data table. Here are a few formulas to help you out:
• Area = length × width
• Population Density = # of animals/area
• Average = sum of all of the densities/# of transects
b. The total stratum area is 803.7 km2. Using the mean elephant density for the stratum that you
calculated, calculate an estimated # of elephants that could be found in this stratum.

3.41

c. What might explain the wide range of elephant densities among the different transects of the stratum?
Give two reasons, one that relates to elephant behavior and one that relates to the survey design.

1. Elephants are very social and travel in large groups probably looking for food
2. The uncounted areas are a lot larger than the counted areas and arent split up

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