Automatic generation of multistate capture-recapture models

Nowadays multistate capture-recapture models are used extensively in biological studies. They feature movement parameters possibly associated with the quality of sites; they also allow a combination of different sources of information to improve the stability and the accuracy of the estimates. Model refinements potentially yield more precise information on biological status. The integration of extensive biological information in the model increases its complexity, however. Thus without an appropriate tool, model building and selection may be time consuming. In this paper, the author describes a tool called GEMACO dedicated to the automatic generation of design matrices for multistate models by means of a programming language. This symbolic and flexible tool avoids tedious matrix manipulations. It is well suited for the description of complex structures and has been implemented in a generic multistate program called M-SURGE freely available at http://www.cefe.cnrs.fr/BIOM/logiciels.htm.