Extensions to Basic Approaches

The two-state and multi-state occupancy models described in Chapters 4 and 5, require a number of assumptions to be made about the data and biological system for inferences from the models to be valid. There will be situations where these assumptions are not reasonable and the modeling must be extended to provide a more accurate description of the system and collected data. In this chapter we detail a number of extensions that have been developed for this purpose, particularly for violations of the closure and independence assumptions. Topics covered include, estimating occupancy for a finite population or small area, false positive detections, multi-scale (or multi-method) occupancy, correlated detection process (autocorrelated survey outcomes), staggered entry-departure, and spatially correlated occupancy.