Input file for Nest Survival Analysis

[Amy Johnson]

I am a new MARK user, and I am trying to use MARK to build nest survival models for altricial songbirds. I've gone through most of the "Gentle Introduction", the help file, and much of the forum and still cannot figure out why my input file will not work. Here are the first few lines of my input file:

Nest Survival Group=1;
/* 09 */ 14 55 55 0 1;
/* 10 */ 14 48 48 0 1;
/* 245 */ 1 46 46 0 1;
/* 258 */ 12 26 28 1 1;

I will eventually be adding a few covariates, but I cannot even get the basic nest data to run in MARK. When I open a new project in MARK, I choose "Nest Survival" data type; my input file is in .inp format; encounter occasions = 55 (since the first day is 1 and last is 55, from this subset of nests); attribute groups = 1; and covariates = 0.

The first error box I get says: "The Encounter Histories file C:\.....inp only contains 5 semicolons. Is this file a proper MARK encounter histories file? Press Cancel now to verify the contents of this file. Otherwise, this Encounter Histories File will be used."

If I change the "encounter occasions" number to 4, I don't get this error box, but it doesn't make logical sense to use 4...so I used 55 and ignored the error. Either way, I get the same errors in the next steps.

A PIM opens, and I try to run the model that's open (I also tried the B0 model), but I get another error box saying: "ERROR --Encounter history must consist of only these characters: '10' Exit code (symbols here). Exit window?"

I click OK, then get: "Could not parse output properly in file mrk6906y.tmp for model .
ERROR -- Encounter history must consist of only these characters: '10'"

Can someone help me figure out what I'm doing wrong?

[Jochen]

Amy,
I just tried using your data (after replacing the blank spaces between the columns with tabstops ), got the same first error message but the model ran without problems for 55 occasions.

I ususally get the second message if I did not properly built my .inp file.
Did you check the rest of your data for any issues, e.g. a missing value, missing semicolon, or a date > 55?

Jochen