Utility of radio‐telemetry data for improving statistical population reconstruction

• Published in: The Journal of Wildlife Management
• Main Authors: Berg, Sergey S., Erb, John D., Fieberg, John R., Forester, James D.
• Other Authors: National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, Wildlife Restoration Program (Pittman-Robertson)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2017
• Subjects: American marten; Martes americana
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.21212; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjwmg.21212; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jwmg.21212

ABSTRACT Statistical population reconstruction using age‐at‐harvest and catch‐effort data has recently emerged as a robust and versatile approach to estimating the demographic dynamics of harvested populations of wildlife. Although there are clear benefits to incorporating radio‐telemetry data into reconstruction efforts, these data are costly and time‐consuming to collect. Managers that consider collecting these data alongside existing efforts could benefit from a comprehensive examination of how such benefits are influenced by the amount of radio‐telemetry data collected. Using a harvested population of American marten ( Martes americana ) in northeastern Minnesota, USA as a case study, we investigated the performance of population reconstruction using information on natural, harvest, or combined mortality derived from radio‐telemetry data collected over different numbers of years and with different numbers of animals collared each year. We simulated populations under a range of conditions and determined that incorporating radio‐telemetry data on natural and harvest mortality significantly improved model precision, and that each additional animal collared per year yielded a 0.50 ± 0.14% (SE) improvement in precision, whereas every additional year of radio‐telemetry data resulted in a 2.42 ± 0.70% improvement. Thus, including another year of radio‐telemetry resulted in similar gains in precision as including approximately 5 additional animals collared per year. In our applied marten example, incorporating radio‐telemetry data resulted in a significantly higher estimate of trapping vulnerability (0.20 vs. 0.058) and an overall smaller population size than reconstruction based solely on age‐at‐harvest and trapper effort data. These results illustrate the benefits of performing auxiliary studies, caution against relying on the results of population reconstruction based solely on age‐at‐harvest and hunter‐effort data, and demonstrate that improvements from incorporating radio‐telemetry data become evident even ...