"help" We want to estimate the number of caribou in Jasper. We recently conducted an aerial survey and saw 70 uncollared caribou and 8 of 11 collared caribou. We want to estimate the number of caribou in this population with 95% confidence limits. Gary White uses the hypergeometric distribution and determines the population estimates using maximum likelihood and 95%CL as -2LogLikelihoods. Below, I determined the population estimate using dhyper(x,m,n,k) and maximizing the density value as a function of n, but do not know how I should calculate MLE with this distribution.
x <- 8 # number resighted caribou (white balls drawn) m <-11 # number collared caribou (white balls total) k <- 70 # number caribou seen (# balls drawn) n <- 1:500 # ?? unknown number of uncollared caribou (# black balls) d <- unlist(lapply(n, function(i) dhyper(x,m,i,k))) # density estimate for each value of n data <- data.frame(estimate = n+m, d) data <- data[is.finite(data$d), ] # filter out NA's max.d <- max(data$d) pop.estimate <- data[data$d == max.d, 1] Thank-you for your assistance, Jesse ______________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list https://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help