SCAT-DETECTION DOGS SURVEY LOW DENSITY MOOSE IN NEW YORK
Heidi Kretser,
Michale Glennon,
Alice Whitelaw,
Aimee Hurt,
Kristine Pilgrim,
Michael Schwartz
Affiliations
Heidi Kretser
Wildlife Conservation Society, North America Program, 132 Bloomingdale Avenue, Saranac Lake, New York, USA 1298
Michale Glennon
Wildlife Conservation Society, North America Program, 132 Bloomingdale Avenue, Saranac Lake, New York, USA 1298
Alice Whitelaw
Working Dogs for Conservation, 52 Eustis Road, Three Forks, Montana, USA 59752
Aimee Hurt
Working Dogs for Conservation, 52 Eustis Road, Three Forks, Montana, USA 59752
Kristine Pilgrim
United States Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation, 800 East Beckwith, Missoula, Montana 59801
Michael Schwartz
United States Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation, 800 East Beckwith, Missoula, Montana 59801
The difficulty of collecting occurrence and population dynamics data in mammalian populations of low density poses challenges for making informed management decisions. We assessed the use of scat-detection dogs to search for fecal pellets in a low density moose (Alces alces) population in the Adirondack Park in New York State, and the success rate of DNA extraction from moose fecal pellets collected during the surveys. In May 2008, two scat-detection dog teams surveyed 20, 4-km transects and located 138 moose scats. In 2011 we successfully amplified DNA from 39 scats (28%) and were able to uniquely identify 25 individuals. Improved storage protocols and earlier lab analysis would increase the amplification success rate. Scat-detection dogs proved to be a reasonable, non-invasive method to collect useful data from the low density moose population in the Adirondack Park.
