How Many Mule Deer Are There? Challenges of Credibility in Colorado

Conflict resolution between stakeholder groups and management agencies is a problem in wildlife management. We evaluated our success in resolving a conflict between sportsmen and the Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW). Sportsmen challenged the credibility of methods used to estimate numbers of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in Colorado and demanded validating surveys to verify numbers of deer. Sportsmen, other interested wildlife stakeholders, and CDOW engaged in a conflict resolution process and designed and implemented an aerial survey to estimate numbers of deer in a specific population whose previous estimated size had been contested by sportsmen. We used helicopters to count mule deer on randomly selected...

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation, Journal Citation; Tags: Colorado, Odocoileus hemionus, Wildlife Society Bulletin, conflict resolution, credibility, All tags... helicopter surveys, human dimensions mule deer, population estimates, sightability, Fewer tags

Sightability Correction for Moose Population Surveys

Lack of complete snow cover for the past 3 winters in southwestern Alaska has forced agencies to postpone conducting moose surveys due to the likelihood of underestimating the population. For most regions of Alaska, the variation in moose sightability during suboptimal conditions has not yet been quantified. Because scientists are predicting less snowfall in this region over the long term, research was initiated to estimate sightability correction factors (SCFc) to apply to abundance estimates.

Categories: Data; Tags: Academics & scientific researchers, CALIBRATION/VALIDATION, CALIBRATION/VALIDATION, DEER/MOOSE, DEER/MOOSE, All tags... Federal resource managers, Interested public, LCC Network Science Catalog, MODELS, MODELS, POPULATION, POPULATION, POPULATION ABUNDANCE, POPULATION ABUNDANCE, POPULATION ESTIMATES, POPULATION ESTIMATES, Policy makers & regulators, Regional & county planners, Report, SNOW COVER, SNOW COVER, SNOW COVER, SNOW COVER, STATISTICAL APPLICATIONS, STATISTICAL APPLICATIONS, State agencies, Tribes, Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Cooperative data.gov, biota, biota, completed, environment, environment, Fewer tags

Estimation of Moose Abundance using the Geospatial Population Estimator combined with a Sightability Model on Togiak National Wildlife Refuge: Site-sp

Lack of complete snow cover for the past 3 winters in southwestern Alaska has forced agencies to postpone conducting moose surveys due to the likelihood of underestimating the population/lack of comparability to previous surveys. Poor snow conditions are known to lower the sightability of moose, yet, for most regions of Alaska, the variation in moose sightability during suboptimal conditions has not yet been quantified. Because scientists are predicting less snowfall in this region over the long term, research was initiated to estimate sightability correction factors (SCFc) to apply to abundance estimates.

Categories: Data; Tags: Academics & scientific researchers, CALIBRATION/VALIDATION, CALIBRATION/VALIDATION, DEER/MOOSE, DEER/MOOSE, All tags... Document, Federal resource managers, Interested public, LCC Network Science Catalog, MODELS, MODELS, POPULATION ABUNDANCE, POPULATION ABUNDANCE, POPULATION ESTIMATES, POPULATION ESTIMATES, Policy makers & regulators, Regional & county planners, SNOW COVER, SNOW COVER, STATISTICAL APPLICATIONS, STATISTICAL APPLICATIONS, State agencies, Tribes, Western Alaska Landscape Conservation Cooperative data.gov, biota, biota, completed, environment, environment, geoscientificInformation, geoscientificInformation, Fewer tags