Below I am going to give you several "scenarios" in which I describe the organism, study area/ experimental situation, and objectives (what is it we are trying to estimate, test , predict). For each I would like you to suggest:
Which method or method(s) considered to date are or could be appropriate for addressing the problem. Note: in most cases more than one method will work but not all methods are equally useful in terms of accuracy, efficiency, or robustness and you should indicate this in your evaluation.
The data structure needed to address the problem
Outline how you would go about setting up the analys(is/es) to address the questions
What additional information do you need, and/or how would you change the design to adequately solve the problem?
Scenarios
The organism is nocturnal and cryptic but is readily captured. It has fairly well defined, small home ranges (typically a movement radius of <100m per night) , has relatively high mortality rates (<50% annual survival) with most mortality confined to winter. Reproduction is confined to a few weeks in late spring. Objective is to estimate annual abundance and population growth on a single, 100-ha study area.
Organism similar to above (nocturnal, cryptic, readily captured) but has larger home range size, lower mortality rates (>80% annual survival), similar timing on mortality and reproduction. Objective is to estimate annual abundance and recruitment on a single, 100-ha study area.
Same organism as (2) but now objective is focussed estimating survival (annually and seasonally) on 4 100-ha study areas where there may be significant temporary movement off the study area during some portions of the year.
Same organism as (1) but now objective is to estimate cause-specific winter mortality and to associate mortality with temporal and individual animal covariates (such as daily temperature on the area, and body mass of animals).
Organism is difficult and expensive to capture but is legally harvested, and the age-sex structure of the harvest is known reliably (100% check station surveys of hunters). Objective is to estimate temporal patterns in demographic rates (survival, reproduction) in relation to changes in harvest regulations
Organism can be captured and tagged large numbers at hatching but is difficult or impossible to recapture. Organism is harvested and tags are visible to the hunter/angler, and contain a toll-free call in number and website for reporting. Objective is to estimate annual survival and harvest rates.