The purpose of the Research Center for Wildlife Demographics is to pursue and disseminate research and tools that promote efficient, robust, and defensible studies of wildlife demographics at large spatial scales. We seek to empower wildlife profesionals to apply data driven management solutions. The majority of our work to date has focused on the demographic assessment of harvested species through the development of statistical population reconstruction models. In the future we plan to broaden our focus to include large scale demographic assessment of non-harvested wildlife populations.
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana
School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington
Professor, School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences
Adjunct Professor, Environmental & Forest Sciences
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Boone and Crockett Professor of Wildlife Conservation
College of Forestry and Conservation
University of Montana, Missoula, MT
Get involved in the research community at large through participation in a Google discussion group dedicated to wildlife demography.
"Bull Elk"
(CC BY-ND 2.0) by AER Wilmington DE
Over the last decade, statistical population reconstruction (SPR) has emerged as a powerful, robust, and efficient method to monitor harvested wildlife species.
Statistical population reconstruction pairs commonly collected age-at-harvest and hunter-effort data with auxiliary information,
such as survival rates from radiotelemetry, to estimate annual age-specific abundance, survival and harvest rates, and their associated variances.
Since 2007, there have been nine published applications of SPR for seven species, including large ungulates, game birds, furbearers, and large carnivores. Accompanying the applications of SPR have been model evaluations and statistical advances, including the use of pooled age-class data, evaluations of auxiliary data sources, Bayesian analysis of SPR models, the use of models with random effects in a maximum likelihood framework, and models which offer more realistic variance estimates. The result is a robust and flexible modeling platform that produces accurate parameter estimates and realistic variance estimates.
Relevant research concerning SPR models both chronologically and by taxa.
User-friendly programs to construct basic SPR models.
Wildlife Demography compiles the multitude of available estimation techniques based on sex and age data, and presents these varying techniques in one organized, unified volume.
Radio Tracking and Animal Populations is a succinct synthesis of emerging technologies and their applications to the empirical and theoretical problems of population assessment.
A single-resource volume of information on the most current and effective techniques of wildlife modeling.