Capture-recapture and evolutionary ecology: A difficult wedding?

Most of the questions raised by evolutionary ecologists require the estimation of demographic parameters such as survival probabilities, breeding propensity, age at maturity, etc. These parameters are usually obtained by capturing, marking and recapturing or resighting (CMR) individuals during their lives. Because exhaustivity cannot be achieved in the field, it is necessary to have an estimate of sampling intensity (capture/resighting probabilities). Statisticians and bio-statisticians have recently developed a wide variety of models devoted to the analysis of capture-recapture data. For a number of reasons, these models are not widely used by evolutionary ecologists. This paper describes the problems that can be encountered when ignoring the measure of sampling intensity. The potential for applying CMR models to current questions in evolutionary ecology is reviewed, particularly with respect to measuring the cost of reproduction and trade-offs. Some future model developments are also sketched which are needed to meet fully the requirements of evolutionary ecologists.