Joint Modeling of Live-Recapture, Tag-Resight, and Tag-Recovery Data

We propose a model for a mark-recapture experiment with resightings obtained from marked animals any time between capture periods and throughout the geographic range of the animals. The likelihood is described for random movement of animals in and out of the capture site, and closed-form maximum likelihood estimators are reported. We show that the estimator is equivalent to that suggested by Jolly (1965, Biometrika 52, 239) but is only valid under the random emigration assumption. The model provides a common framework for most of the widely used mark-recapture models including live-recapture, tag-recovery, and tag-resight models and allows simultaneous analysis of data obtained in all three ways.