PROGRAM ESTIMATE
Program ESTIMATE is an old FORTRAN program to estimate survival and recovery rates from band-recovery data. A more modern, flexible program for this type of analysis is program MARK (a Windows program written by Gary White) which is available at the following web site: http://www.cnr.colostate.edu/~gwhite/mark/mark.htm. There is no "user's manual" for this program, but the methods used by the program (and some outdated instructions) are described in: Brownie, C., D.R. Anderson, K.P. Burnham, and D.S. Robson. 1985. Statistical Inference from Band Recovery Data-A Handbook. 2nd edition. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Resource Publication 156. Input data for ESTIMATE consists of a vector of bandings and a matrix of recoveries from those bandings. Output consists of survival and recovery rate estimates under a sequence of models. An example follows: PINK FOOTED GOOSE DATA (FROM BOYD. 1956. J. ANIMAL ECOL.) 3 41950 32 22 16 7 70 50 9 57 29 301 766 897 In this example, birds were banded in 3 years and recoveries were recorded in 4 years. Banding began in 1950 when 301 birds were banded; 32 recoveries were reported in 1950 from the cohort banded in 1950. During 1952, 16 recoveries were reported from the cohort banded in 1950, 50 recoveries were reported from the cohort banded in 1951, and 52 recoveries were reported from the cohort banded in 1952. 897 birds were banded during the final year of the experiment (1952). This example data set is discussed and analyzed by Seber (1970. Biometrika). The program (ESTIMATE) can be run on-line via the following web-site: http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/software/estimate.html where an input text box will accept the input file described below. The usual procedure for running the program on the web is to create an input file on your PC, select all of the text and copy to the clipboard, then paste the text into the input box in your web browser. Then click the 'Perform Analysis' button. Output will appear in the web browser. FORTRAN source code for ESTIMATE is available from the following web site: ftp://pwrcftpr.er.usgs.gov/research/software/source/estimate.zip A PC DOS executable version of the program can be downloaded from: ftp://pwrcftpr.er.usgs.gov/research/software/estimate.zip. The DOS executable version of ESTIMATE (estimate.exe) must be run in an MSDOS window under WINDOWS. Input should be created as a 'ascii text' file using one of the two formats described below. Output will be displayed on the screen by default, but should be redirected to an output file for evaluation. Two sample input data files are included in the zip archive: ESTIN1 is an example data file using the old format where the recovery matrix and banding vector were aligned by column. Each entry in the recovery matrix occupies 4 columns and entries in the banding vector occupies 5 columns. Blanks are read in as zeros. The first line contains the title (alphanumeric description of the data). The second line contains the number of years of banding (columns 1-3), the number of years of recovery (columns 4-6), followed by a 4-digit number indicating the first year of banding. Following line 2 are lines making up the recovery matrix (4 columns each). The last line (or 2 lines if there are more than 16 years of banding) is the vector of bandings (5 columns each). Note in this example that when there are 10,000 or more bandings in a year, there is no space separating the numbers in adjacent years. ESTIN3 is an example data file which uses the modifications to ESTIMATE. By entering '(*)' on the parameter card (the second line of input), free form input can be used for the recovery matrix and banding vector (ie. numbers are separated by a space, and don't have to be placed in specific columns). The numbers in the second line still have to be placed in specific columns. To run ESTIMATE on the example input file ESTIN1 and send output to the printer, open an MSDOS window, change to the directory (folder) where program ESTIMATE resides, then type: estimate <estin1 >prn If you have questions, problems or comments with this program please contact: Jim Hines, Computer Specialist - USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center 11510 American Holly Dr. Rm 201 Laurel, Md. 20708-4017 Phone:(301)(301)497-5661 fax:(301)497-5667 internet: jim_hines%40usgs.gov