Thread: Deer Population

At a local national park,42 deers were spotted and tagged one day. One week later, 41 were spotted and of those 5 had been tagged the week before. Predict deer population.

Originally Posted by magentarita

At a local national park,42 deers were spotted and tagged one day. One week later, 41 were spotted and of those 5 had been tagged the week before. Predict deer population.

The maximum likelihood estimate boils down to equating the proportions of tagged deer. Let x be the size of the population. Then:

.

Solve for x.

Originally Posted by mr fantastic

The maximum likelihood estimate boils down to equating the proportions of tagged deer. Let x be the size of the population. Then:

.

Solve for x.

I had no idea that this could be solved by setting up a proportion.