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?
Habitat loss and poaching are the two main threats

Scientists estimate that African elephants are being lost at a rate of __100______/day.
2. What are two principal research questions that will be addressed by the Great Elephant Census?
The research questions are how elephants remain, and where they live.

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.
Some examples of the logistics the organizers need to address are the method they will use to count each
elephant, the transportation for the researchers (the aircraft), and how they will divide the survey areas.

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

The results will be used to 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?

They chose sampling because counting each elephant was not practical.

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.

The researchers use specific, premeasured areas as their sample, they use cameras to determine what animals
are inside the area, and they use laser altimeters to calculate their height above the ground, which the counting
strip depends on.

7. What technology is the team using to determine which elephants are inside and outside the strip?
What human limitation makes this necessary?
They use cameras because humans are not good at cutting through groups and determining which
members of the group should be counted
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 Scientists at Work
The Great Elephant Census Student Worksheet

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 lines in the diagram to the left
represent the transects that a plane follows
during an aerial survey of each stratum. The
counting strips are 150-m-wide areas on either
side of each transect where elephants are
counted. The table below shows the data that
were collected for one stratum.

Elephant
Width of Counting # of elephants density
spotted in in counting
Transect counting strip strip area counting strip
Transec length
t (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

2
b. The total stratum area is 803.7 km . 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.

The wide range of elephant densities could be due to the resources in Elephants Collection
each
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