Capture—recapture estimation via Gibbs sampling

Capture-recapture models are widely used in the estimation of population sizes. Based on data augmentation considerations, we show how Gibbs sampling can be applied to calculate Bayes estimates in this setting. As a result, formulations which were previously avoided because of analytical and numerical intractability can now be easily considered for practical application. We illustrate this potential by using Gibbs sampling to calculate Bayes estimates for a hierarchical capture-recapture model in a real example.