A hierarchical model for spatial capture-recapture data

Royle and Young formulated a hierarchical Bayesian model for spatial capture-recapture in which individual animal locations are treated as latent variables drawn from a spatial point process, and detection depends on distance from these locations to traps. By modeling the spatial encounter process explicitly within a hierarchical framework, they unified abundance estimation with the spatial information in capture data and removed the need for ad hoc effective-area corrections. The approach accommodated movement and provided a flexible, extensible foundation that later supported numerous elaborations for camera-trap studies. It is one of the foundational statistical papers of the SECR era and is frequently cited in the development and application of spatially explicit methods for estimating carnivore density from camera and trapping data.