= Mark and recapture
{wiki=Mark_and_recapture}
Mark and recapture is a scientific technique used to estimate the size of animal populations in ecology. The basic idea is to capture a sample of individuals from a population, mark them in a harmless way, and then release them back into the environment. After allowing some time for the marked individuals to mix back into the population, a second sample is captured. By comparing the ratio of marked to unmarked individuals in the second sample, researchers can use mathematical formulas to estimate the total population size.
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