Comparing the effectiveness of tracking methods for medium to large-sized mammals of Pantanal

Most Neotropical mammals are not easily observed in their habitats, and few studies have been conducted to compare the performance of methods designed to register their tracks. We compared the effectiveness of track registry between sand plots and two tracking methods that use artificial materials to record tracks: the sooted paper, and the plastic board methods. The latter is described here for the first time. From 2002 to 2005, we conducted two experiments in three study sites in the Pantanal region of Brazil. We compared the artificial methods with the sand plot by registering track presenc...