ABSTRACT
Pellet-group plots have been used for detecting changes in deer and elk population levels. The density of pellet groups is assumed to reflect the density of elk or deer. The analysis presented here is to detect changes in population levels, rather than estimate populations. The necessary assumption is that the rate of defecation is the same for each sample, meaning that changes in vegetation or the age structure of the population do not affect defecation rate, an assumption almost never true.
