This chapter describes techniques to create life-tables for animals whose generations overlap widely. Age-grouping is a prerequisite for these methods, which have been most widely applied to vertebrate populations. Age cannot be inferred from the developmental stage without reference to the environment. The speed of development may be temperature-dependent or influenced by factors such as oxygen and food availability. The methods for ageing animal groups, including invertebrates, fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals, are reviewed. Time-specific life-tables, population modelling, and Leslie matrices are described. R code to analyze Leslie matrix dynamics is presented.
Peer Review #2 of "Constructing stage-structured matrix population models from life tables: comparison of methods (v0.3)"