Data from: Food for fitness? Insights from 24 Norwegian moose populations for proactive monitoring and preventing overabundance
Data files
Nov 06, 2025 version files 136.68 KB
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README.md
1.74 KB
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WamEtAl_FoodForFitness_Dryad.xlsx
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Abstract
Cervid (Cervidae) populations that are overabundant with respect to their food resources are expected to show declining physiological and reproductive fitness. A proactive solution to such declines is to integrate the monitoring of food resources with animal harvesting strategies, but there are few studies available to guide managers regarding which food resources to monitor and how to do so. In this study, we used a rare large data set that included detailed absolute measures of available food quantities and browsing intensity from field inventories, to test their relationship with fitness indices of moose Alces alces in 24 management units in four regions across Norway. The Dryad deposited dataset includes detailed data from these food inventories, and harvesting statistics from all the management units with a total of 250,710 moose seen, 32,756 moose shot, and 4,209 moose calves weighed. It also contains regional statistics on calves seen per cow during a total of 2,475,483 hunter 8-h days, and 34,532 moose calves weighed. Explanation of each data type is given alongside the data. Additional information on how the data was collected is found in the accompanying journal article.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.37pvmcvxn
Description of the data and file structure
In this study, we used a rare large data set that included detailed absolute measures of available food quantities and browsing intensity from field inventories, to test their relationship with fitness indices of moose Alces alces in 24 management units in four regions across Norway. The Dryad deposited dataset includes detailed data from these food inventories, and harvesting statistics from all the management units with a total of 250 710 moose seen, 32 756 moose shot and 4 209 moose calves weighed. It also contains regional statistics on calves seen per cow during a total of 2 475 483 hunter 8-h days, and 34 532 moose calves weighed.
Files and variables
File: WamEtAl_FoodForFitness_Dryad.xlsx
Description: The excel file contains multiple sheets. Variables are abbreviated in the data sheets. Each data sheet pertains to a certain topic of the data (raw data from the field inventories of moose food or raw data from hunting statistics) and each variable is described in the explanation sheet.
Open cells means data is not applicable, i.e. the year of data for the variable in question was not used in any of our analyses. These data may be available in the open cource hunting statistics listed under Access information below.
N/A means data were unavailable.
Access information
Parts of the data (hunting statistics) was derived from the following public sources: