Poachers

[Deleted member 16014]

Curious if the study had the radio collars evenly distributed so mimics all deer in the state or if there was a bias to favor deer closer to population centers (less effort required driving a few minutes from the office rather than hiking to a remote drainage to attach collars to deer).

The selection of deer for the collars is important. If I am correct that poaching risk for any random deer is positively correlated to frequency of human interaction and yet the deer population is mostly not near larger cities then the observed poaching results could overstate poaching rates when the observed radio collar poaching statistics are then extrapolated to the entire deer population.

Poaching is a big issue though if the impact is overstated then could unnecessarily reduce lawful permits authorized.

The message of the original post is well taken, but this is a good point. I work with wildlife and natural resource professionals every day who couldn't explain a "standard deviation" or "scope of inference" if their life depended on it, despite being in the business for 20+ years.

 

[1_pointer]

The message of the original post is well taken, but this is a good point. I work with wildlife and natural resource professionals every day who couldn't explain a "standard deviation" or "scope of inference" if their life depended on it, despite being in the business for 20+ years.

Ha! It really shouldn't be so funny given it's true.