Alternate title

National Otter Survey of Ireland 2004

Date (Publication)

2006-01-01T00:00:00

Citation identifier

https://data.gov.ie/dataset/ / National-Otter-Survey-of-Ireland-2004-2005

Purpose

During the National Otter Survey 210/2011, a total of 1,229 sites were surveyed for signs (spraints or footprints) of otters throughout Ireland. Flowing freshwater (i.e. rivers, streams and canals) accounted for 999 sites, static freshwater (i.e. lakes and reservoirs) accounted for 59 sites and the coast (i.e.the marine environment) accounted for 171 sites. Where possible, sites were situated on separate rivers at least 5km apart to provide spatial independence. The survey was based on the ‘Standard Otter Survey’ method (Lenton etal. 1980). At each site a maximum distance of 600m was surveyed for spraint either along one river bank, around a lake or along a coastal shore.

The survey was conducted by National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS) staff and ecologists from Queen’s University Belfast. Three training days were organized for surveyors to standardize data collection including trial surveys to demonstrate methods in situ in the field.

The survey data was supplied to NPWS in MS Access .accdb format, and records of otter, mink and other non-targeted species (Fox, Badger, Heron, Dipper, Moorhen, Coot, Kingfisher) were subsequently uploaded into the NPWS Species database. Spot-checks of record locations against discovery series mapping were carried out prior to the upload, and Recorder 6 validation rules applied. Any positive records were then exported from the Species database as a polygon shapefile showing squares, with the side lengths of the squares corresponding to the precision in which the records were provided.

Status

Completed

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage	National Parks and Wildlife Service	datadelivery@housing.gov.ie	Point of contact

Maintenance and update frequency

Not planned

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

• Species distribution

GEMET - Concepts, version 3.1

• biodiversity

National Parks and Wildlife Service

• National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, species, lutra lutra, National Biodiversity Plan, heritage

ISO 3166

• Ireland

Use limitation

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Access constraints

Other restrictions

Other constraints

Copyright Government of Ireland. This dataset was created by National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. This copyright material is licensed for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Spatial representation type

Vector

Denominator

50000

Language

English

Character set

UTF8

Topic category

• Environment

Reference system identifier

EPSG / https://www.opengis.net/def/crs/EPSG/0/29903

EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset EPSG 2009-11-25

Distribution format

Name	Version
ESRI Shapefile	.

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage	National Parks and Wildlife Service	datadelivery@housing.gov.ie.ie	Point of contact

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
application/zip	https://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/general/Otter_survey_2004_2005_GIS_0.zip	Download SHP

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
text/pdf	https://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/publications/pdf/IWM23.pdf	Publication Document

Hierarchy level

Dataset

Statement

During the National Otter Survey of Ireland 2004/2005, one principal surveyor and a team of trained NPWS personnel visited a total of 525 sites in 435 10km squares, distributed across the entire country, although

concentrated in the 44 otter-designated Special Areas of Conservation. Positive signs of otter activity (mainly spraints, but other signs, such as footprints, fish remains and slides were also noted) were recorded at 370 (70.48%) of the 525 sites.

For a detailed description of the applied survey methodology, see Irish Wildlife Manual No. 23, p. 9 ff.

All survey data were collated into a centralised database (MS Access 2003). Any records from this database (with a subset of recorded attributes) were subsequently uploaded into the NPWS Species database. Spot-checks of record locations against OSI Discovery series mapping were carried out prior to the upload, and Recorder 6 validation rules applied. Any positive records were then exported from the Species database as a polygon shapefile showing squares, with the side lengths of the squares corresponding to the precision in which the records were provided.

Metadata

File identifier

9b2afbc4-8f69-4392-8761-a5446f8004d9 XML

Metadata language

English

Character set

UTF8

Hierarchy level

Dataset

Date stamp

2021-06-29T18:09:09

Metadata standard name

ISDI Metadata Profile

Metadata standard version

1.2

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage	National Parks and Wildlife Service	datadelivery@housing.gov.ie	Author