Goodness-of-Fit Tests for Open Capture-Recapture Models

General goodness of fit tests for the Jolly-Seber model are proposed.These tests are based on conditional arguments using minimal sufficient statistics.The tests are shown to be of simple hypergeometric form so that a series of independent contingency table chi-square tests can be performed.The relationship of these tests to other proposed tests is discussed.This is followed by a simulation study of the power of the tests to detect departures from the assumptions of the Jolly-Seber model.