Wednesday, June 21, 2017
10:00 - 01:00; 180 min. -
Environmental Science:
Mark Recapture -
Zach joined me in the dolphin lab, and we reviewed the process for mark recapture analysis of population size. We examined the sample test cases that were part of his in-class work a few weeks ago. We then discussed how this is manifest in real world research. Zach was introduced to the data that has been collected on the local population of wild dolphins. Zach was given an opportunity to recognize the difficulties that present themselves when working with wild animals in an underwater world. Since collecting data for mark recapture analysis on wild animals is so difficult, the first set of data was collected over a three-year period. One year was given between data sets, and the re-capture set was also collected over a three-year period. Zach assisted in the analysis by facilitating the data entry into the database. Once that task was completed, he also worked on reviewing the data to assure no errors were made. I showed him how I had programmed the database to find the solution to the mark recapture analysis, so we could see how many animals from the first set were encountered again during the second time period.