A spatial capture–recapture model with attractions between individuals

Abstract

AbstractOver the past two decades there have been many advancements in modeling capture–recapture (CR) data to account for emerging data collection technology and techniques. Spatial capture–recapture (SCR) models have been introduced to estimate population size and numerous other demographic parameters from spatially explicit CR data. Recently SCR models have also begun incorporating realistic animal movement to account for individual dispersion and attraction to resources. While some species of animals are known to exhibit attractive behavior, nearly all SCR models assume complete independence among individual's movement and capture probability. In this article, we introduce an SCR model which allows for attractions between individuals via their daily location. We demonstrate via a simulation study that accounting for the attractions specified by our model, when present, can improve population size estimation. In addition, we apply our model to an iconic SCR dataset to estimate the population size and attraction parameters of a Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) population.