A Note on Bayesian Analyses of Capture–Recapture Data with Perfect Recaptures

Abstract

ABSTRACT A Bayesian analysis of capture–recapture data might assume independent Beta prior distributions for each parameter of interest across competing models. In the absence of genuine a priori knowledge, a default specification would reduce to the special case of uniform priors over the parameter space. In this note we demonstrate that for the set of models proposed by Catchpole et al. (2004), it is possible to derive an exact expression for Bayes factors relating competing models under assumption of unitary recapture probabilities.