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Physical Sciences and Mathematics
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
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Hidden Markov Models For Estimating Animal Mortality From Anthropogenic Hazards, Matthew A. Etterson
Hidden Markov Models For Estimating Animal Mortality From Anthropogenic Hazards, Matthew A. Etterson
United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications
Carcass searches are a common method for studying the risk of anthropogenic hazards to wildlife, including nontarget poisoning and collisions with anthropogenic structures. Typically, numbers of carcasses found must be corrected for scavenging rates and imperfect detection. Parameters for these processes (scavenging and detection) are often estimated using carcass distribution trials in which researchers place carcasses in the field at known times and locations. In this manuscript I develop a variety of estimators based on multi-event or hidden Markov models for use under different experimental conditions. I apply the estimators to two case studies of avian mortality, one from pesticide …