Estimating cause-specific mortality rates using recovered carcasses

Journal of Wildlife Diseases
By: , and 

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Abstract

Stranding networks, in which carcasses are recovered and sent to diagnostic laboratories for necropsy and determination of cause of death, have been developed to monitor the health of marine mammal and bird populations. These programs typically accumulate comprehensive, long-term datasets on causes of death that can be used to identify important sources of mortality or changes in mortality patterns that lead to management actions. However, the utility of these data in determining cause-specific mortality rates has not been explored. We present a maximum likelihood-based approach that partitions total mortality rate, estimated by independent sources, into cause-specific mortality rates. We also demonstrate how variance estimates are derived for these rates. We present examples of the method using mortality data for California sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) and Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris).

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Estimating cause-specific mortality rates using recovered carcasses
Series title Journal of Wildlife Diseases
DOI 10.7589/0090-3558-45.1.122
Volume 45
Issue 1
Year Published 2009
Language English
Publisher Wildlife Disease Association
Contributing office(s) National Wildlife Health Center
Description 6 p.
First page 122
Last page 127
Country United States
State California, Florida
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