Abstract
Mark-recapture (MR) methods are commonly used to study
wildlife populations. Taking advantage of modern genetics one can general-
ize from “recapture of self” to “recapture of closely-related kin”. Abundance
and other demographic parameters of adults can then be estimated using, if
necessary, only samples from dead animals (live-release is optional). This
greatly widens the scope of MR, e.g. to commercial fisheries where large-
scale tagging is impractical, and enhances the power of conventional MR
studies where live release and tissue sampling is possible. We give explicit
formulae for kinship (i.e., recapture) probabilities in general and specific
cases. These yield a pseudo-likelihood based on pairwise comparisons of in-
dividuals in the samples. It is shown that the pseudo-likelihood approximates
the full likelihood under sparse sampling of large populations. Experimental
design is addressed via the principle of maximizing the Fisher information
for parameters of interest. Finally, we discuss challenges related to kinship
determination from genetic data, focusing on current limitations and future
possibilities.
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