Data from: A dog makes a difference: Exploration of potential biases in moose-hunting associated citizen science
Data files
Apr 03, 2026 version files 6.58 MB
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datafordryad_EN.xlsx
6.58 MB
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README.md
4.69 KB
Abstract
The collection of citizen data is often employed to generate insights regarding species distribution, population sizes, and population structure; however, biases inherent in citizen science are seldom addressed. In this study, we examined the factors influencing hunters' observations of moose, Alces alces, during the moose hunting season in Finland. By analyzing approximately 0.5 million moose observations collected between 2017 and 2021, we discovered that, in addition to the population size from the previous year, the progression of the hunting season due to culling had a significant impact on the observations. The effects of hunting effort, including the time spent hunting and the number of hunters, were notably influenced by the use of dogs in the hunting. However, different classes of moose exhibited varied responses to the presence of dogs, suggesting a potential for biases in sex ratio and population size estimation. Additionally, landscape characteristics also affected observations, which may suggest variations in the potential for visual observation or differences in moose behavior. We discuss the implications of our findings on biases in the population parameter estimation and outline several areas for future research.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.g1jwstr6f
Description of the data and file structure
The data used is hunting data summarized by day and the game management association. The owner of the raw data, Suomen Riistakeskus, has agreed to publish this aggregated data. Data also contains other freely available data, such as weather and landscape data. These are also summarized by game management area and by day (if applicable). These data were used in the analyses presented in the manuscript.
This data was compiled from various sources. The main data was the daily hunting team data, including the numbers of observations of different classes of moose and snow conditions. This data was aggregated such that it represents the total number of daily observations of moose classes within game management associations. Since aggregation, the hunting effort statistics were averaged over hunting teams (i.e, the average number of hunters, or the average number of hours spent hunting). This averaging was done separately for teams that used a dog or hunted without a dog.
In addition, we joined the previous year's standing stock estimate, variables describing the landscape, and daily precipitation to this data.
The data file's first sheet contains the data, and the second one contains the description of the variables.
Analyses were performed with generalized mixed models as described in the manuscript.
Files and variables
File: datafordryad_EN.xlsx
Description:
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
| F2 | Number of observed females with 2 calves |
| F1 | Number of observed females with 1 calf |
| F0 | Number of observed females with 0 calves |
| M | Number of observed males |
| stock | The previous year's remaining stock in the game management association |
| area | Area of the game management association (Ha) |
| NumberOfDays | Number of days since 1.9; used to model the progress of the season |
| teams | Number of hunting teams active during the particular day |
| hunterperteam | Average number of hunters per team during the particular day (z-standardized) |
| DOG | A factor indicating whether hunting was done with or without a dog |
| zAveHours | Average number of hours teams spent hunting during the particular day (z-standardized) |
| cat_snow | A factor indicating whether the ground was covered with snow during the hunting day |
| Loggings_0 | Amount of logging during the year hunting was followed (Ha) |
| Loggings_12 | The combined amount of logging during the two previous years |
| Pine_mineral | Pine stands and seedlings on mineral ground (proportion of land area) |
| Pine_peat | Pine stands and seedlings on peat ground (proportion of land area) |
| Pine_peat_dr | Pine stands and seedlings on drained peat ground (proportion of land area) |
| Older | Older stands (no main tree species specified; proportion of land area) |
| Urban | Urban areas (proportion of total land area) |
| Fields | Fields (proportion of total land area) |
| GMA | Identity code of the game management area |
| Year | Year |
| X_coord | X-coordinate (centroid of the area) |
| Y_coord | Y-coordinate (centroid of the area) |
Access information
Other publicly accessible locations of the data:
- None
Data was derived from the following sources:
- Suomen Riistakeskus, FMI (Finnish Meteorological Institute, LUKE (Natural Resources Institute)