jlaake wrote:If you are talking about years prior to release, you can use . or 0 because for a CJS model, nothing before the first 1 in the capture history matters. Go read ch 1-4 as Evan suggested.
--jeff
Jeff is, of course, entirely correct. However, I generally suggest that
1\ if you sampled, but didn't detect, use a zero.
2\ if you didn't sample, then you can use a 'dot'. I say *can*, because (a) not all models in MARK support the 'dot' notation, and (b) you need to be sure you know what you're doing. Sometimes using a '0', and then explicitly fixing p to 0 forces you to really think - carefully - about what a missing sample is/does to your analysis. This is covered in various places in the book, but the key 'treatment' is in the -sidebar- starting on p. 24 of chapter 4
For simple CJS analysis, point is somewhat moot. The likelihood is conditioned on events following the first capture, so whether you use a 0 or dot won't much matter. This being Jeff's point.