Research areas
I am a Reader based in the Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling and the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews. Until July 2026, I was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Statistics, University of Auckland
I develop statistical methods and software to estimate ecological parameters of interest, usually animal abundance or density. My recent work has met statistical challenges that arise when instruments like microphones, video-cameras, or drones are deployed to detect animals on wildlife surveys. New technologies have the potential to collect mountains of data at a low cost, but complicate estimation of ecological parameters because less information is encoded within each detection. For example, we can easily identify an individual on a live-trapping survey via a securely fixed ID tag, but perhaps cannot do so from a fleeting glimpse in a video. Most of my current work involves capture-recapture or spatial capture-recapture models.
Along with ecological statistics, I have research interests in spatial statistics, statistical computing, and applied statistics in general. I am currently an associate editor at Biometrics, a journal that publishes statistics research relevant to the biosciences.
Please see my personal webpage for further details.
Selected publications
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Spatial Capture-Recapture With Penalized Regression Splines to Flexibly Model Wildlife Density and Distribution
Seaton, A. E., Borchers, D. L., Groenenberg, M. & Stevenson, B., 1 Jun 2026.Research output: Working paper › Preprint
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Open access
A flexible framework for spatial capture-recapture with unknown identities
Van Dam-Bates, P., Papathomas, M., Stevenson, B. C., Fewster, R. M., Turek, D., Stewart, F. E. C. & Borchers, D. L., Mar 2024, In: Biometrics. 80, 1, 12 p., ujad019.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
That's not the Mona Lisa! How to interpret spatial capture-recapture density surface estimates
Durbach, I., Chopara, R., Borchers, D. L., Phillip, R., Sharma, K. & Stevenson, B. C., Mar 2024, In: Biometrics. 80, 1, 9 p., ujad020.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
A latent capture history model for digital aerial surveys
Borchers, D. L., Nightingale, P., Stevenson, B. C. & Fewster, R. M., 1 Mar 2022, In: Biometrics. 78, 1, p. 274-285 12 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Cluster capture-recapture to account for identification uncertainty on aerial surveys of animal populations
Stevenson, B. C., Borchers, D. L. & Fewster, R. M., 2019, In: Biometrics. 75, 1, p. 326-336 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Counting chirps: acoustic monitoring of cryptic frogs
Measey, G. J., Stevenson, B. C., Scott, T., Altwegg, R. & Borchers, D. L., Jun 2017, In: Journal of Applied Ecology. 54, 3, p. 894-902 9 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
An efficient acoustic density estimation method with human detectors applied to gibbons in Cambodia
Kidney, D., Rawson, B. M., Borchers, D. L., Stevenson, B., Marques, T. A. & Thomas, L., 19 May 2016, In: PLoS One. 11, 5, p. 1-16 16 p., e0155066.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
Trace-contrast models for capture-recapture without capture histories
Fewster, R. M., Stevenson, B. C. & Borchers, D. L., 26 May 2016, In: Statistical Science. 31, 2, p. 245-258 14 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
A general framework for animal density estimation from acoustic detections across a fixed microphone array
Stevenson, B. C., Borchers, D. L., Altwegg, R., Swift, R. J., Gillespie, D. M. & Measey, G. J., Jan 2015, In: Methods in Ecology and Evolution. 6, 1, p. 38-48 11 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Open access
A unifying model for capture-recapture and distance sampling surveys of wildlife populations
Borchers, D. L., Stevenson, B. C., Kidney, D., Thomas, L. & Marques, T. A., 2015, In: Journal of the American Statistical Association. 110, 509, p. 195-204 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review