Unifying Model for Capture–Recapture and Distance Sampling Surveys of Wildlife Populations

A fundamental problem in wildlife ecology and management is estimation of population size or density. The two dominant methods in this area are capture–recapture (CR) and distance sampling (DS), each with its own largely separate literature. We develop a class of models that synthesizes them. It acc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Statistical Association 2015-01, Vol.110 (509), p.195-204
Main Authors: Borchers, D. L., Stevenson, B. C., Kidney, D., Thomas, L., Marques, T. A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abundance estimation
Acoustic survey
acoustics
Animal populations
Animals
Closed population
Error
frogs
Hylobatidae
Mathematical models
Measurement
Measurement error
Measurement errors
Original
Population density
population size
Population theory
Sampling techniques
Statistics
surveys
Theory and Methods
Visual survey
whales
Wildlife
Wildlife management
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Description
Summary:A fundamental problem in wildlife ecology and management is estimation of population size or density. The two dominant methods in this area are capture–recapture (CR) and distance sampling (DS), each with its own largely separate literature. We develop a class of models that synthesizes them. It accommodates a spectrum of models ranging from nonspatial CR models (with no information on animal locations) through to DS and mark-recapture distance sampling (MRDS) models, in which animal locations are observed without error. Between these lie spatially explicit capture–recapture (SECR) models that include only capture locations, and a variety of models with less location data than are typical of DS surveys but more than are normally used on SECR surveys. In addition to unifying CR and DS models, the class provides a means of improving inference from SECR models by adding supplementary location data, and a means of incorporating measurement error into DS and MRDS models. We illustrate their utility by comparing inference on acoustic surveys of gibbons and frogs using only capture locations, using estimated angles (gibbons) and combinations of received signal strength and time-of-arrival data (frogs), and on a visual MRDS survey of whales, comparing estimates with exact and estimated distances. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.
ISSN:1537-274X
0162-1459
1537-274X
DOI:10.1080/01621459.2014.893884