Reporting Issues and Trends of Alaska Moose
Hunters
Jen Schmidt
Post Doc, Institute of Arctic Biology, UAF
Contact: fsjis@uaf.edu
Under Reporting by Moose Hunters: Background
• Previously researched by Andersen and Alexander 1992 in interior
Alaska
• Ours differs in that we:
– Expanded the focus to Statewide
– Added some new parameters
– More of a statistical approach
• Two measures of reported harvest
– Subsistence household surveys conducted by members of the
community through the division of Subsistence at the Alaska
Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G)
– Harvest tickets that are returned to division of Wildlife Conservation at
ADF&G
• Measure of under reporting
– Ratio = Subsistence Household Surveys
Hunter Harvest Tickets
Under Reporting by Moose Hunters: Limitations
• The “year” does not match up between the two
databases
– Subsistence (January-December)
– Hunter Harvest Tickets (July-June)
– Since most moose are harvested in the fall this minimizes this
issue since fall is in the same “year” for the two databases
• In large communities not all households can be surveyed
so survey information must be extrapolated to represent
the whole community
n = 97
n = 118
Under Reporting by Moose Hunters: Model & Parameters
• General linear model
• Parameters (* used by Andersen and Alexander 1992)
– Percent of a community that:
• Attempts to harvest a moose*
• Harvests a moose*
• Receives meat or other parts of a moose*
• Shares/Gives meat or other parts of a moose*
• Is Native*
– Population Size*
– Median Household Income*
– Presence of an Area Biologist employed by ADF&G*
– Distance (Km) from a community with an Area Biologist
– Presence of a license vendor
Model Results
Full Model P- value = 0.02 Reduced Model P-value = 0.002
Parameter * Co - P-value Parameter* Co- P-
Efficient Efficient value
Intercept 0.86 0.919 Intercept 2.28 0.488
% hunt a moose -0.16 0.161 Harvest 0.42 0.002
% harvest a moose 0.54 0.008 Use -0.45 0.013
% use a moose -0.46 0.023
Receive 0.44 0.006
% receive a moose 0.40 0.025
% give a moose 0.11 0.474
% Native 0.01 0.901
Distance to area biologist 0.03 0.125
Population size +0.00 0.600
Median household income -0.00 0.731
Presence of an area biologist
Yes N/A N/A
No 3.21 0.535 *Percent of a community
Presence of a license vendor
Positive value indicates
Yes N/A N/A
increase in under-reporting
No -1.69 0.640
Strong Sharing Network
Use moose meat or Attempt to harvest Harvest a moose Give moose meat
other parts or other parts
Attempt to harvest 0.75 Pearson Correlation
2.3 ft) because it increases death of moose
– Warm conditions are stressful for moose
• Winter >23°F (-5°C); Summer 57°F (14°C)
• Indirect climate effects: More wildfire
– Moose prefer recent burns (11-25 years)
– Moose prefer burn edges and unburned patches within a burn
– Moose move into burns if moose density high
– Moose move into burns if unburned habitat is poor for moose and/or
limits the number of moose
• Changes in vegetation
– Moose prefer deciduous over spruce or tundra, so changes of spruce or
tundra to deciduous will increase moose habitat
• Hunter behavior
– Moose hunting is concentrated near roads and rivers
– Weather (e.g., warm fall, early snow) influences harvest success
– Increased temperature in fall can lead to spoilage of moose meat
– Influence of gas price/employment on harvest level