Estimation of Probabilities for Open Population Capture-Recapture Using Generalized Estimating Equations

Abstract

This study was designed to estimate the capture probabilities for open population capture-recapture experiment using Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) approach accounting for heterogeneity, behavioural effects and environmental effects. An open population capture-recapture data was simulated using three different trapping occasions(m=4,5,6) with population sizes (N=500,1000).The results show that, has the best performance in estimating the capture probability because of the smallest value of RMSE as compare to, across the different simulations. The study concludes that; environmental covariates plays important role when estimating the capture probabilities of open population capture-recapture experiments.