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 moosevehicle 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.
Figure 1: Reported moose observations in the
Adirondack State Park, NY from 1980 to 2009
(color designates different years).
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 email 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
LAKE
10/2/1993
HAMILTON
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
Scat
Other: _________________________
Other sign:
Collar?
______
Tracks
Yes
No
Color: _____ Ear tag?
Town/village: __________________________
Yes
No
ID#:
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.
WANTED!
Have you seen a moose? Report it!
http://sites.google.com/site/adirondackmooseobservations
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!
For more information about this project, e-mail adkmooseobservations@gmail.com