Optimal allocation of sampling effort in depletion surveys

摘要

Purpose: To consider designing a depletion or removal survey as part of estimating animal abundance for populations with imperfect capture or detection rates. Summary: In a depletion survey, animals are captured from a given area, counted and withheld from the population. This process is then repeated some number of times at the same location and the decreasing catches of the local population inform jointly local abundance and the capture rate (catchability q). The goal could be to learn about the catchability process, which may then be applied to a broader survey to accurately estimate total abundance T. (13 refs.)