Bayesian Hierarchical Models for Inference About Population Growth

Mark recapture models have long been used for estimating wildlife population parameters. Typically, the data are summarized in terms of parameters that are interpreted in the context of an implicit demographic model for describing population dynamics. Usually, this demographic model plays little or no role in the mark-recapture model. Bayesian hierarchical models (BHM) offer a way to explicitly include demographic models in an analysis. We argue that such an approach should have wide appeal to ecologists as it allows inference to focus on ecological models of interest rather than obtaining a parsimonious depiction of the sampling process. We discuss the use of BHM’s for modeling mark-recapture data with a focus on models describing density-dependent growth.