Data for Integrating multiple surveys using state-space models improves inference of population trends for Illinois furbearers

Data and code provided for Wildlife Biology publication "Integrating multiple surveys using state-space models improves inference of population trends for Illinois furbearers". We used four datasets collected by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and the Illinois Natural History Survey to assess abundance trends in Illinois between 1979-2023 for three species: raccoon (Procyon lotor), opossum (Didelphis virginiana), and striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis). We used Bayesian state-space models to examine population growth for each dataset individually, and compared these to trends derived from using all four datasets in one integrated model.

Two datasets are included here; please contact Dr. Craig Miller (craigm@illinois.edu) for access to the two datasets with containing human subject data.