Data from: Retention of riveted aluminum leg bands by wild turkeys

A critical assumption of mark-recapture models so they provide unbiased estimates of population parameters is that uniquely identifying tags or marks are not lost. We double-banded male and female wild turkeys with aluminum rivet bands and estimated the probability that a bird would be recovered with both bands <1–225 weeks since banding (= 51.2 weeks, SD = 44.0). We found that 100% of females (n = 37) were recovered with both bands. For males, we recovered 6 of 188 turkeys missing a rivet band for a retention probability of 0.984 (95% CI = 0.96–0.99). If male turkeys are double-banded with rivet bands the probability of recovering a turkey without any marks is <0.001. We failed to detect a change in band retention over time or differences between adults and juveniles. Given the low cost and high retention rates of rivet aluminum bands, we believe they are an effective marking technique for wild turkeys and, for most studies, will minimize any concern about the assumption that marks are not lost.标记重捕模型（mark-recapture models）要获得无偏的种群参数估计结果，其核心前提假设为：个体的唯一识别标记或标识不会发生丢失。我们为野生雌雄火鸡均佩戴双枚铝制铆钉脚环（aluminum rivet bands），并估算了自佩戴脚环起1至225周内，个体同时保有两枚脚环的回收率，该时段的平均时长为51.2周，标准差（SD）=44.0。研究结果显示，雌性火鸡（n=37）全部均可回收到两枚完整脚环。针对雄性火鸡，188只个体中共有6只丢失了一枚铆钉脚环，其脚环保有率为0.984（95%置信区间CI=0.96–0.99）。若为雄性火鸡佩戴双枚铆钉脚环，则回收时未携带任何标识的个体概率低于0.001。我们未检测到脚环保有率随时间发生变化，也未发现成体与幼体之间存在差异。鉴于铝制铆钉脚环成本低廉且保有率较高，我们认为该标识技术是野生火鸡标记研究的有效手段，在多数相关研究中，可最大限度降低因‘标识不会丢失’这一前提假设带来的潜在顾虑。