Evaluation of Downing Population Reconstruction: Simulations for Black Bear and White-tailed Deer Populations
Population reconstruction is a technique that uses harvest-at-age data and backward addition of cohorts to estimate minimum population size over time. Management agencies use population reconstruction because it uses data that are commonly collected for managed species, particularly for bear and deer populations. However, this technique had not been rigorously evaluated for accuracy or precision. We used computer simulations to evaluate the impact of life history parameters, harvest rate, sampling error, and violated assumptions on Downing population reconstruction estimates. This...
