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 is increasing 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 successful history 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. DEC biologists rely on wildlife sightings to help estimate

population numbers, to understand the distribution of individuals throughout 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.

Figure 1: Reported moose observations in the Adirondack State Park, NY from 1980 to 2009 (color designates different years).

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!

APPENDIX A: Home page and identification help page of the submissions website.

APPENDIX B: Sample Adirondack Region Moose observation Report Form.

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: ______________________________

APPENDIX C: Flier created to advertise the Adirondack Moose Observations website and public reporting of moose in the Adirondack Region.

http://sites.google.com/site/adirondackmooseobservations

For more information about this project, e-mail adkmooseobservations@gmail.com

WANTED!Have you seen a moose?

Report it!State biologists and other researchers rely on public observations to estimate moose numbers in the Adirondacks and the

surrounding region. Be a part of this ongoing

research and report a moose sighting!