A common problem in ecology, social networks, and marketing is estimating the population of a particular species or type. The mark-recapture method is a classic approach to estimating the population.
Assume we want to estimate the population of sturgeon in a section of the Hudson river. We use the following procedure:
- Capture and mark \(h\) sturgeons
- Recapture \(n\) sturgeon and you find that \(y\) of them are marked
- The estimated sturgeon population is \(N = \frac{h n}{y} \).
Motivate statement \(3\) using the hypergeometric distribution.
