Creating a Public Moose Observation Database for the Adirondack State Park

Creating a Public Moose Observation Database for the Adirondack State Park

Catherine Haase, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Edna B. Sussman Foundation Internship 2009 Final Report

INTRODUCTION

Once common, the North American moose (Alces alces) population in the Adirondack State Park has fluctuated greatly in the last 150 years (Jenkins 2004). Historically, moose were extirpated from the Adirondacks in the early 1860’s due to a combination of unregulated hunting and intense habitat alteration from fires and deforestation (Hicks 1986, NYSDEC). However, due to advancement in land management techniques and more regulated hunting laws, the moose has slowly returned. As populations in eastern Canada and New England have significantly increased, moose from these areas have migrated across state and country lines and into New York to establish a stable population (Roy 2007).

New York State biologists first thought moose wouldn’t remain in the Adirondacks, but were just young migrants passing though. However, in the last twenty years they have significantly re-colonized parts of their former Adirondack range, with a current estimated population size between 300 and 500 individuals. Biologists no longer believe this growing population consists of just young migrants, but instead discovered it is a true breeding population (Garner 1989, Roy 2007). Biologists also believe that the population isincreasing 10-15% each year, similar to moose populations in Vermont and New Hampshire (DEC). They base their estimation on public observations of animals, tracks, and scat, known moose mortalities, and observed reproduction events.

The use of wildlife sightings from citizen scientists for understanding species' distributions has a long and successfulhistory in wildlife biology (for example, the Christmas Bird Count and Project Feeder Watch out of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology), but the use for understanding mammal ecology has been limited. However, moose are very conspicuous creatures and therefore an excellent species for public observation studies involving citizen scientists. DECbiologists rely on wildlife sightings to help estimate population numbers, to understand the distribution of individualsthroughout the region, and to record the types of habitat used by the species.And many other New York organizations (both state government and non-profit),have been recording observations of moose since the late 1980s, but having multiple datasets can make the population estimation inconclusive.

Therefore, my internship research consisted of centralizing a geo-spatial database of moose observations throughout northern New York using the World Wide Web and citizen scientists. My objectives were to 1) organize a database of past moose observations in the Adirondack Park, 2) develop a website to allow submissions of new moose observations into the database, and 3) coordinate the collection and dissemination of recent moose sightings among public and private organizations (i.e. NYSDEC, DOT, WCS).

DATABASE DEVELOPMENT

I obtained historic moose data (1980 to 2009) from the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, the NYS Department of Transportation, and the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Adirondack Wildlife Watch. Each organization had been collecting its own data; the DEC had many collared animal Geographic Positioning Systems (GPS) locations, the Wildlife Conservation Society had received many phone calls and e-mails from the public reporting sightings, and the DOT had locations of all moose-vehicle accidents.

I organized and digitized these data into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for easy manipulation (Table 1). For those data that included latitude and longitude points, I imported the coordinates into Google Earth and displayed them on a map of the Adirondacks to demonstrate to the public where moose have been historically located (Figure1).

I also used this database to decide on important parameters that would be necessary for future habitat analyses and therefore imperative for the public to report with a moose observation. These factors included if the moose was male or female, a juvenile or an adult, the location and the type of habitat the moose was observed in, as well as the behavior and description of the reported moose.

WEBSITE CONSTRUCTION

Google Sites is a free web program that allows a user to create a website, create documents and spreadsheets, and organize data that can be accessed from any computer through Google.com. Google Sites also allows collaborators to access and edit sites and for the administrator to publish sites to the public. I created a public web page using Google Sites to facilitate the reporting of moose sightings in an easy and timely matter; this also allows multiple organizations to use the data and keeps it all in one

location, saved online to be accessed anywhere.

On the home page of this site I included a brief natural history of the moose in the Adirondacks, the rationale behind collecting public observations, some short facts about the biology of moose, and the Google Earth map that I created from the historical GPS locations from the NYSDEC. This homepage also incorporates a link to a wildlife identification page that I created to help public observers distinguish between moose and deer, males and females, calves and cows, and how to recognize moose scat, tracks, and other sign; there is also a link to the submission form that observers can complete and submit their sighting (Appendix A).

The Observation Report Form that I created included parameters such as date, time, town, county, number of moose, sex of moose, age of moose, the number and color of an ear tag or collar, habitat type, specifications of location, and observer’s contact information. This form was also exported as a PDF and attached to the webpage so users that run into problems with the submission form can download it and e-mail it to the administrator e-mail address (Appendix B). I also included a link to a webpage for the observer to find the exact location on a Google map to obtain the latitude and longitude coordinates of where they saw the moose. These coordinates can then be imported into Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to be analyzed in future research.

The online form that observers fill out is connected to a spreadsheet within Google Documents (another part of the account set up with a Google.com). This form is automatically updated within the user account with every submission; an e-mail notice is sent to the administrator notifying them that the spreadsheet had been edited recently. This allows the collaborators to be notified and keeps the observation data all in one central database.

Table 1: Moose observations submitted to the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.

Sighting Date / County / Town/village / Sex / Age / Antlers / Tracks / Scat / X-COORD / Y-COORD
2/13/1994 / FRANKLIN / BRIGHTON / unknown / unknown / no / no / no / 476214 / 4846673
1/23/1986 / LEWIS / LYONSDALE / male / yearling / no / no / yes / 479739 / 4825195
10/2/1993 / HAMILTON / LAKE PLEASANT / female / adult / no / yes / no / 481279 / 4829484
10/17/1985 / LEWIS / WATSON / male / yearling / no / no / no / 485053 / 4854225
10/21/1985 / FRANKLIN / BRIGHTON / unknown / unknown / no / no / no / 485170 / 4854181
10/21/1985 / LEWIS / WATSON / male / adult / yes / no / no / 485607 / 4853802
11/2/1993 / WARREN / HAGUE / male / adult / no / no / no / 494181 / 4920702
9/28/1997 / WARREN / WARRENSBURG / male / adult / no / no / no / 496342 / 4797415

ADVERTISING

In order to advertise the webpage to the public, I created a flier that included relevant information about the site and the website address (Appendix C). I distributed these fliers at trailheads, visitor’s information centers, and various municipal locations throughout the park. I also contacted the local governments of the larger municipalities and requested that the website address be placed on the town homepages. The DEC, DOT, and WCS linked to the moose observation page as well from their respective moose or Adirondack information sites.

SUBMISSION RESULTS

To date, there are 14 submissions since the website’s completion in August 2009. Once I received notice of the first few submissions, I was curious to see where the reporters read or heard of this site, since the observations were from areas across the Adirondacks. Therefore I added a question to the form that asked the observer if they discovered this site from one of my fliers, their town’s website, from the DEC/WCS/DOT websites, or from another location. Since the addition of this question, I discovered that many reporters found the website through a Google.com search; therefore to increase the direction to this site from Google.com, I indexed more search terms (such as “Adirondacks,” “observations,” etc.), allowing a variety of searchable word combinations to bring people to this site.

I have also gotten a few e-mails to the Adirondack Moose Observation username e-mail address, with comments about the increased excitement of moose in the Adirondacks. Many people have directed me to news articles, on-line blogs, Facebook pages, etc., which has allowed me to improve the advertisement of this website and boost the number of public submissions.

CONCLUSION

The website has been an overall success; we have increased the number of moose submissions in the Adirondacks since the DEC stopped officially monitoring them in the Park. I have successfully created a database that has allowed for a centralized location for all the observations in the park, which permits a better understanding of the increasing population. The website is now a “go-to” site for enthusiastic moose-lovers in the Park and therefore has established a perception that “citizen scientists” are just as important in wildlife biology as the trained biologists of government and non-profit organizations. We now have a dataset that is constantly being updated by the public, creating a liaison between biologists and laymen, as well as adding to the knowledge of the future of moose in the Adirondacks.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I’d like to acknowledge that without funding provided by the Edna B. Sussman Foundation, this internship would never have been possible. I’d like to thank my internship advisor, Michale Glennon from the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Adirondack Park Program and my major professor, Dr. H. Brian Underwood for both of their guidance and endless support in this project. Many thanks to the DEC biologists Chuck Dente and Ed Reed for their knowledge about moose, their original observation dataset, and friendly answers to my many questions; to Kyle Williams from the NYS Department of Transportation for his help in advertising this web page and in the gathering of data; to the biologists at the Adirondack Ecological Center for their continued enthusiasm; and to Abigail Larkin for her help in distributing information to the public. And without the help of my countless fellow moose-lovers, the success of gathering observation data would have never been possible!

Adirondack Region Moose Observation Report Form

Date of Sighting: ______Time: ______Number of animals: ______

Sex: Bull Cow Both Unknown

Age: Juvenile Adult Multiple Unknown

Other sign: Tracks Scat Other: ______

Collar? Yes No Color: _____ Ear tag? Yes No ID#: ______

Town/village: ______County: ______

Route number & location description (Ex: 4 miles east of Newcomb on Route 28N):

______

______

Habitat type (circle one): Softwood Hardwood Mixed Wetland

If other, please describe (Ex: open field of my backyard): ______

______

Comments about moose’s activity (Ex: male with big antlers, males fighting, etc.):

______

______

Name of observer: ______

Phone #: ______E-mail: ______