Q2. How did the authors estimate the temporal standard deviation of kitten survival?
The authors estimated temporal standard deviation of kitten survival (σ) at 0.199 (95% credible interval = 0.011 – 0.380) and 0.077 (95% credible interval = 0.003 – 0.234) using models without and with abundance index, respectively.
Q3. What is the reason for the lower estimate of kitten survival?
The slightly lower estimate of sub-adult female survival may be in part due to a death of a female panther near her estimated 1st birthday that was categorized as a sub-adult in the kitten analysis and as a kitten in the adult analysis.
Q4. How many models were used to estimate?
From the most general models remaining (with 13 parameters), the model S(k<3, 3≤k<9, k≥9) p(k:DO, s&a) r(k<3, k≥3, s&a) had the lowest AICc and was used in the litter bootstrap to estimate ĉ.
Q5. How old were the 91 radio-collared panthers?
The ages of 91 radio-collared panthers not handled as kittens in the den were estimated as previously described; 11 were estimated to be < 1 year of age.
Q6. How many models were used to estimate kitten survival?
These results suggest that estimates of kitten survival obtained from data organized in 3 monthtime steps lacked precision and robustness, most likely due to sample size limitations.
Q7. What is the way to estimate the survival of a panther?
Model-averaged estimates of annual survival of Florida panther kittens based on 3 ancestry categories, including two different base models.
Q8. Why were the kittens more likely to be captured than other kittens?
The kittens of Texas cougars may have been more likely to be captured than other kittens, due to greater efforts expended to capture those kittens (model 1, Table C1A).
Q9. What was the effect of abundance index on kitten survival?
Full model-averaged estimated kitten survivals increased from canonical to other admixed to F1 admixed (Figure D3), and were slightly lower for all ancestry classes than model averages from the base model alone (Figure A1).
Q10. How many kittens were captured in the first half of the year?
The FWC and National Park Service (NPS) instituted a policy in November 2001 restricting the capturing and radio-collaring of kittens < 12 months in age.