When animals aren't released every year

[SandraChristine]

Chapter 9 of the MARK book (p. 10) states that when you do not release any animals in a given year, you should take out the corresponding row of the recovery matrix (set the row to 0). When I subsequently run the most general model, MARK renumbers all of these 0s as 1s. Is there a way to disable the automatic renumbering? Any help greatly appreciated!!!

[cooch]

Chapter 9 of the MARK book (p. 10) states that when you do not release any animals in a given year, you should take out the corresponding row of the recovery matrix (set the row to 0).

If you're using the 'classical' recovery matrix input format.

When I subsequently run the most general model,

Meaning, presumably, fully time-dependent for both parameters. The question though is what data type are you running. You mention Chapter 9, so presumably dead recoveries only, but which one: Seber parametrization, or Brownie? Not that it really matters, but in general, when asking a question, always be as specific as possible.

MARK renumbers all of these 0s as 1s. Is there a way to disable the automatic renumbering? Any help greatly appreciated!!!

What do you mean it renumbers the 0's in the .inp file? MARK changes nothing in the .inp file, for any data type.

My *guess* is that you're in fact mistakenly putting 0's in the PIM for a given parameter, and not the .inp file. If in fact this is what you're doing, then this is your mistake. For years (cohorts) where you don't mark new individuals, that row of the recovery matrix in the data .inp file is where you enter the row of 0's.

[SandraChristine]

That was indeed my mistake (entering 0s into the PIM). Thank-you

[cooch]

That was indeed my mistake (entering 0s into the PIM). Thank-you

You also need to enter a 0 for total released in the release summary line which you find just below the recovery matrix.