On the estimation of spread rate for a biological population

We propose a nonparametric estimator for the rate of spread of an introduced population. We prove that the limit distribution of the estimator is normal or stable, depending on the behavior of the moment generating function. We show that resampling methods can also be used to approximate the distribution of the estimators. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. MSC: primary 62G05; secondary 62G20.