Ecological inference from occupancy estimates depends on sampling scale

Understanding animal occupancy should be relatively simple – but actually requires some complex thinking. In this blog post, Jonathon J. Valente (Postdoctoral Fellow, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Migratory Bird Center) and Quresh S. Latif (Biometrician, Bird Conservancy of the Rockies) delve into the surprisingly tricky question of ‘how many sites are occupied?‘ Occupancy has long been a focus in ecology. Estimating probability of site occupancy … Continue reading Ecological inference from occupancy estimates depends on sampling scale

It’s a bear! Adopting a ‘computer vision for animal ecology’

How can automated image processing be applied for detecting, counting and identifying animals in natural landscapes? A recent review article published in the Journal of Animal Ecology covers this exact question! Dr Ben Weinstein is a postdoctoral fellow at Oregon State University interested in community ecology, Bayesian modeling and data science. He studies a wide range of taxa including tropical hummingbirds, Antarctic whales, and temperate trees. … Continue reading It’s a bear! Adopting a ‘computer vision for animal ecology’