spaceNtime: an R package for estimating abundance of unmarked animals using camera-trap photographs
Anna K. Moeller, Paul M. Lukacs
Abstract
Abstract The space to event (STE), time to event (TTE), and instantaneous sampling (IS) methods were developed to estimate abundance of unmarked animals from camera trap images (Moeller et al. in Ecosphere 9(8):e02331, 2018). The space and time to event models use camera data in a different way than other abundance estimation methods do. Instead of using counts of animals over independent events, STE uses a measure of sampled space before the first detection of the target species, and TTE uses the time until the first detection. We introduce , a free and open-source R package designed to assist in the implementation of the STE and TTE models, along with the IS estimator. This package takes the user through the steps of transforming data, defining sampling effort, selecting sampling occasions, building encounter histories, and estimating abundance from camera data using these three methods. The package is designed for users with a baseline level of knowledge of R and statistics, without requiring expertise in either.