No longer a pipe dream: monitoring a cryptic, endangered skink population (Oligosoma otagense) using passive eDNA detection devices
Using a sequential adaptive experimental design, we successfully demonstrate that a passive eDNA detection field tool, consisting of pear-baited alkathene pipes equipped with Dacron filters for eDNA capture, can effectively monitor occupancy by a cryptic Otago skink (Oligosoma otagense) population. Detection rates using our eDNA tool were approximately 30–50% higher than those recorded by field teams historically in the Awa Nohoaka Conservation Area.