number of observed animals (count individuals)

[jimcasaer]

create a function to calculate the number of observed animals in a deployment (get_count() ?) or for a specific time interval (see #38)

rai could also be based on the number of observed animals rather than the number of observations (allow selection? )

[damianooldoni]

I would call this function get_n_individuals() to maintain same syntax of other functions, especially the similar one, get_n_obs().

[jimcasaer]

can this issue be closed ? @damianooldoni

[damianooldoni]

I would prefer to leave it open as you mentioned in this issue a second requirement:

rai could also be based on the number of observed animals rather than the number of observations (allow selection? )

So, I was thinking to tackle this after tackling the filtering by age and sex for RAI as well (see inbo/camtrapdp#42 (comment))

[damianooldoni]

Meanwhile, the more reasonable way to add the option of calculating RAI based on n_obs (via get_n_obs()) or n_individuals (via get_n_individuals()) is by a new argument; but how to call it? @peterdesmet: I need your help 🆘
Here below the best idea I have in mind, I hope it is enough to trigger your sisth sense for naming things:

get_rai(datapkg, species, by) # allowed values of by arg: one of "n_obs", "n_individuals"

@jimcasaer: should this new arg have a default value? In other words, do you use RAI more often by using the number of observations or the number of individuals or it's 50%-50%?

[jimcasaer]

why don't you cal it 'feature' as was done in the map_dep() ?
however if it is to much trouble we stick to n_obs for rai as this is the general rule in literature

[damianooldoni]

That's also a good idea, @jimcasaer.

No, it's not so difficult to add this, no worries, just that it's good practice to wait 5 minutes about thinking about a good name than changing it afterwards as it is annoying for the users as they have to unlearn something.

@peterdesmet: what do you think?

get_rai(..., feature = "n_obs") # other possible value: "n_individuals"

I agree with @jimcasaer and I would prefer feature above my previous idea (by).

[peterdesmet]

Don't know the context, but feature sounds more clarifying that by, so I support feature.

[damianooldoni]

One problem found just now: if we use feature as arg name in get_rai() it's impossible to say to map_dep() that we want to visualize RAI with number of individuals as feature = "rai"in map_dep(). Simply because the name of the argument is the same.

map_dep(camtrapdp, feature = "rai", ...) # how to pass feature = "n_individuals" to get_rai()???

We should avoid to reuse feature! Ideas for the name of the argument to use in get_rai()?

# one option
get_rai(..., n = "n_obs") #where is the common part between n_obs and n_individuals
# other option
get_rai(..., n_obs = TRUE, n_individuals = FALSE) # two args which if both TRUE or FALSE n_obs is used and warning returned

we should also find a good name to use in map_dep() as well, better if the same as in get_rai() of course.

[damianooldoni]

The nights whispered a wise and simple solution: just splitting it in two functions, get_rai() and get_rai_individuals() which could be visualized via map_dep(feature = "rai") and map_dep(feature = "rai_individuals").

[jimcasaer]

I like the night :-)