Estimating Survival from Joint Analysis of Resighting and Radiotelemetry Capture-Recapture Data for Wild Animals

• Published in: Journal of agricultural, biological, and environmental statistics Vol. 6; no. 4; pp. 461 - 478
• Main Authors: Nasution, Marlina D., Brownie, Cavell, Pollock, Kenneth H., Bennetts, Robert E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Statistical Association and the International Biometric Society 01.12.2001; American Statistical Association; International Biometric Society
• Subjects: Analytical estimating; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Bird banding; Data models; Datasets; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects. Techniques; Kaplan Meier estimator; Methods and techniques (sampling, tagging, trapping, modelling...); Modeling; Parametric models; Snails; Survival rates; Telemetry; Radiotelemetry; Capture recapture method; Estimation; Animal tagging; Models; Wild animal; Survival
• ISSN: 1085-7117; 1537-2693
• DOI: 10.1198/10857110152946839

Biologists often use more than one marking technique in wildlife studies. For each of the mark types, it is common to conduct a separate analysis of the recapture data to estimate parameters of interest, such as survival rates. Two data types that can be used in estimating survival rates are resighting and radiotelemetry data. The Cormack-Jolly-Seber model is commonly used to analyze the resighting data, while the Kaplan-Meier product limit estimator, modified for staggered entry of animals, is used to analyze the radiotelemetry data. In a study where some animals receive two types of tags and others receive just one tag type, the separate Cormack-Jolly-Seber and Kaplan-Meier analyses do not exploit all of the information in the combined data sets. In this article, we propose a model and likelihood for the combined analysis of resighting and radiotelemetry data. In comparison with the separate analyses, this richer model provides more information about the biology and sampling processes. For example, the richer model permits assessment of assumptions required by the separate analyses and allows estimation of additional parameters. We apply the model to annual resighting and monthly telemetry data from a population of snail kites in Florida. The snail kite is a threatened species of bird in the United States, and our results on survival are very important. In this example, all birds are marked using leg bands and some of them receive radios.