Line Transect Estimators for Left-Truncated Distributions

Left-truncated line transect data sets may occur when surveying with certain types of aircraft where the observer cannot look straight down. A general model of left-truncation in line transect sampling is developed and parametric estimators are derived in such cases when the underlying distribution of right-angle distances is either exponentially or half-normally distributed. Computer simulations demonstrate the validity of the derived estimators and the expected nonrobustness against alternative distributions. An aerial survey example using dolphin data is presented.