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The rapid improvement of camera traps in recent decades has revolutionized biodiversity monitoring. Despite clear applications in conservation biology, camera traps have seldom been used to model the abundance of unmarked animal populations. The goals of this review are to summarize the challenges facing abundance estimation of unmarked animals, present an overview of existing analytical frameworks, and provide guidance for practitioners seeking a suitable method.

As part of the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) the Mudumu Complexes of the east Zambezi Region of Namibia are important areas for wildlife connectivity and dispersal. The national parks of the east Zambezi Region, i.e. Mudumu and Nkasa Rupara, are too small to maintain viable populations of some wildlife species, which depend on being able to move across a network of landscapes, such as the conservancies and woodland areas to connect to protected areas in neighbouring countries such as Angola, Botswana and Zambia.

Areas surveyed: The Okavango River in Namibia, from just northwest the bridge on the Trans-Caprivi highway south to the Botswana border; the entire length of the Kwandu-Linyanti-Lake Liambezi-Chobe system, including the Mamili National Park; and the Zambezi river for its entire length on Namibia's border, including parts of the adjacent East Caprivi floodplains.

Etosha National Park has a long history of aerial game counts, the first experimental counts being conducted in the late 1960's. Only in the late 1980's were systematic sample counts introduced. A big advance in the actual procedure and analysis was made with the introduction of GPS and GIS software used since 1995. The 2000 census is the third census flown based on GPS transects and were GPS waypoints were recorded for sightings made.

Etosha National Park, hereafter referred to as Etosha, was counted as part of the first co-ordinated regional Elesmap census from 15 July to 3 August 1995. The aim of this report is to present the results of the elephant count, data for the other species will be presented separately. Etosha is a 23 000 km² conservation area surrounding a large saline pan. The vegetation is mainly open Mopane and Acacia savanna and short grass plains. Topography is mainly very flat, with only a few hills in the west. For a detailed description see inter alia le Roux et al.(1988).

Etosha National Park, hereafter referred to as Etosha, was counted as part of the first co-ordinated regional Elesmap census from 15 July to 3 August 1995. The aim of this report is to present the results of the elephant count, data for the other species will be presented separately. Etosha is a 23 000 km² conservation area surrounding a large saline pan. The vegetation is mainly open Mopane and Acacia savanna and short grass plains. Topography is mainly very flat, with only a few hills in the west. For a detailed description see inter alia le Roux et al.(1988).

An assessment of population size is a fundamental stage in the conservation of any species. The recent availability of data from the Southern African Bird Atlas Project (SABAP) provides a tool to investigate the status and distribution of approximately 900 bird species covered by this work. Here, we assess whether or not reporting rate can be used to establish absolute abundance and thereby produce estimates of population size.