Bayesian multi-species hierarchical distance sampling: Density estimation of vertebrates in Betampona Madagascar
Date:
In-person presentation for the 2023 summer meeting of the National Centre for Statistical Ecology (NCSE)
Abstract
Distance sampling is a popular method in wildlife surveys, allowing for estimation of density and abundance whilst accounting for imperfect detection. This framework has been extended to hierarchical distance sampling which models abundance as a function of covariates, and multi-species community frameworks which facilitate inference on more elusive species. This project is motivated by an extensive multi-year, multi-species survey conducted on amphibians, reptiles, and mammals in the Betampona Reserve in Madagascar. We consider a Bayesian multi-species hierarchical distance sampling model to analyse the data. We present results to applications on simulated and real data.
Award
Runner-up for best student presentation.
