Improving analysis of marine mammal populations using natural marks and capture-recapture analysis

Byron Bay 25th - 29th May 2009

Sponsored by the
Australian Marine Mammal Centre

Presenters:

Professor Ken Pollock
Dr Lyndon Brooks

Venue:

Southern Cross University Room
Byron Bay Community and Cultural Centre
69 Johnson Street
Byron Bay NSW 2481

Contacts

• For information about workshop and content, contact lyndon.brooks@scu.edu.au

Workshop Registration, Travel and Accommodation

• Register for the Workshop
• Information about travel and accommodation

Workshop program

Day 1

• Registration at 8.30 am
• Presentations on research priorities, research in progress and planned research
• Overview of workshop content
• Getting program MARK running on your computer

Days 2-4

• Lectures, demonstrations and computer-based exercises
• You should bring your own portable computer and have program Mark loaded on it

Day 5

• Discussion of issues arising and consultation on design and analysis for specific project data

Content of the lectures

• Differences between natural marks and applied tags
  • Natural marks and criteria for capture (identification)
  • Non-evolving and evolving natural marks
• Closed and open populations
• Closed Population Models
  • Modelling abundance
  • Modelling unequal catchability due to time, behaviour and heterogeneity among individuals
• Open Population Models
  • Estimating survival and movement for open populations
  • Estimating abundance and recruitment for open populations
• Combining Closed and Open Population Models
  • Pollock's Robust Design
• Unobservable states and temporary emigration
  • The Open Robust Design Model
  • Estimating residency and fidelity
• Conclusions and future research

Your Research

We will be better able to serve your needs if you tell us about your research.

Software

We will use the program MARK in our examples and for the workshop exercises. MARK and documentation may be downloaded free from www.phidot.org/software/mark.

The MARK BOOK which accompanies the program (www.phidot.org/software/mark/docs/book) is an invaluable resource not only for learning how to drive MARK but also for learning about the models.

We strongly recommend people who have not used MARK before to download and install the program, download the BOOK and work through some of the basics prior to the workshop.

Suggested Reading

We recommend:

Byron K. Williams, James D. Nichols and Michael J. Conroy (2001). 'Analysis and Management of Animal Populations.' Academic Press, San Diego. The most relevant chapters are 14, 17, 18 and 19. There is also some relevant conceptual and mathematical material in Part 1 and the Appendices.

S. C. Amstrup, T. L. McDonald and B. F. J. Manly Eds (2005). The Handbook of Capture-Recapture Analysis. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.

Pollock, K. H., Nichols, J. D., Brownie, C., and Hines, J. E. (1990). Statistical Inference for Capture-Recapture Experiments, Wildlife Society Monographs (No. 107). Download here (Pollock et al. 1990)

Further Resources

Links to further resources (eg: PDFs of lectures, relevant papers and data for exercises) will be provided as they become available.

• PDFs of lectures
• Example Data Files

Updated: 01 March 2010