Data from: Assessing cetacean populations using integrated population models: an example with Cook Inlet beluga whales ...

• Main Authors: Jacobson, Eiren, Boyd, Charlotte, McGuire, Tamara, Shelden, Kim, Himes Boor, Gina, Punt, André
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Dryad 2020
• Subjects: Bayesian statistics; Beluga whales; cetaceans; Integrated modelling; state-space models; Hobbs; Beluga; Beluga*; Delphinapterus leucas
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.9zw3r229w; https://datadryad.org/stash/dataset/doi:10.5061/dryad.9zw3r229w

Effective conservation and management of animal populations requires knowledge of abundance and trends. For many species, these quantities are estimated using systematic visual surveys. Additional individual-level data are available for some species. Integrated population modelling (IPM) offers a mechanism for leveraging these datasets into a single estimation framework. IPMs that incorporate both population- and individual-level data have previously been developed for birds, but have rarely been applied to cetaceans. Here, we explore how IPMs can be used to improve the assessment of cetacean populations. We combined three types of data that are typically available for cetaceans of conservation concern: population-level visual survey data, individual-level capture-recapture data, and data on anthropogenic mortality. We used this IPM to estimate the population dynamics of the Cook Inlet population of beluga whales (CIBW; Delphinapterus leucas) as a case study. Our state-space IPM included a population process ... : /Data/CIBW_RSideCapHist_McGuire&Stephens.csv contains a matrix of right side capture histories (1 = captured, 0 = not captured) for each individual (rows) and year (columns). Photographic capture-recapture data were collected by Tamara McGuire. These data are made available here, without restriction, but anyone wishing to use these data is requested to contact [e-mail], who can provide further information on how raw data were processed to provide capture histories. /Data/CIBW_HuntData_Mahoney&Shelden2000.xlsx contains the minimum documented number of animals killed (MinKilled) for years between 1950 and 1998 as published in Mahoney and Shelden 2000. Entries which are NA indicate that no data were available for that year. /Data/CIBW_Abundance_HobbsEtAl2015.xlsx contains the total group size estimates from Hobbs et al. 2015. /Data/CIBW_Abundance_BoydEtAl2019.txt contains an array with dimensions [1:1000, 1:8, 1:11] containing 1000 posterior samples of total group size for up to 8 ...