Data from: A hierarchical model for jointly assessing ecological and anthropogenic impacts on animal demography

1. The management of sustainable harvest of animal populations is of great
ecological and conservation importance. Development of formal quantitative
tools to estimate and mitigate the impacts of harvest on animal
populations has positively impacted conservation efforts. 2. The vast
majority of existing harvest models, however, do not simultaneously
estimate ecological and harvest impacts on demographic parameters and
population trends. Given that the impacts of ecological drivers are often
equal to or greater than the effects of harvest, and can covary with
harvest, this disconnect has the potential to lead to flawed inference. 3.
In this study, we used Bayesian hierarchical models and a 43-year
capture-mark-recovery dataset from 404,241 female mallards (Anas
platyrhynchos) released in the North American midcontinent to estimate
mallard demographic parameters. Further, we model the dynamics of
waterfowl hunters and habitat, and the direct and indirect effects of
anthropogenic and ecological processes on mallard demographic parameters.
4. We demonstrate that density-dependence, habitat conditions, and harvest
can simultaneously impact demographic parameters of female mallards, and
discuss implications for existing and future harvest management models. 5.
Our results demonstrate the importance of controlling for
multicollinearity among demographic drivers in harvest management models,
and provide evidence for multiple mechanisms that lead to partial
compensation of mallard harvest. We provide a novel model structure to
assess these relationships that may allow for improved inference and
prediction in future iterations of harvest management models across taxa.