When a large enough percentage of the survey area is sampled, dung surveys can be as accurate as other survey methods. They are relatively easy to implement and don't require specialized equipment, but intensive and careful training is required. Elephant dung is easier to detect than the elephants themselves and generates more data than a ground survey of elephants. As dung counts measure dung deposited over time, this method is less sensitive to elephant movement between sampling areas or the clumped distribution of elephants.

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