Assessing the suitability of a one-time sampling event for close-kin mark-recapture: A caribou case study.

Abundance estimation is frequently an objective of conservation and monitoring initiatives for threatened and other managed populations. While abundance estimation via capture-mark-recapture or spatially explicit capture-recapture is now common, such approaches are logistically challenging and expensive for species such as boreal caribou (), which inhabit remote regions, are widely dispersed, and exist at low densities. Fortunately, the recently developed 'close-kin mark-recapture' (CKMR) framework, which uses the number of kin pairs obtained within a sample to generate an abundance estimate, eliminates the need for multiple sampling events.