Mount Rainier National Park and Olympic National Park elk monitoring program annual report 2013
Happe PJ, Reid M, Vales DJ, Moeller BJ, Tirhi M, McCorquodale S. 2014. Mount Rainier National Park and Olympic National Park elk monitoring program annual report 2013. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/NCCN/NRDS—2014/642. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Fiscal year 2013 was the third year of implementing an approved elk monitoring protocol (Griffin et al. 2012) in Mount Rainier (MORA) and Olympic (OLYM) National Parks in the North Coast and Cascades Network (NCCN). However, it was the sixth and fourth year of gathering data according to protocol in MORA and OLYM respectively; data gathered during the protocol development phase followed procedures described in the protocol. Elk monitoring in these large wilderness parks relies on aerial surveys from a helicopter (Figure 1). Summer surveys are intended to provide quantitative estimates of abundance, sex and age composition, and distribution of migratory elk in high elevation trend count areas. An unknown number of elk is not detected during aerial surveys; however the number of missed elk may be estimated by applying site-specific models that account for detection bias (Griffin et al. 2012). Detection bias for elk surveys in MORA was estimated using a model developed from survey data collected from 2008-2010, making use of elk that were previously equipped with radio collars by cooperating tribes. At the onset of protocol development in OLYM there were no radio-collars on elk. Consequently the majority of the effort in the OLYM from 2008-2011 was focused on capturing and radio-collaring elk and conducting sightability trials needed to develop a detection bias model for OLYM. In this annual report we provide estimates of abundance and composition of elk observed in MORA, present raw counts of elk observed in OLYM, and describe sightability trials conducted in OLYM. At MORA the North trend count unit was surveyed twice and the South unit was surveyed once. We counted 263 and 106 elk during the replicate surveys of the North Rainier trend count area, and 505 elk in the South Rainier trend count area. Using the model to correct for detection bias, we estimated that 311.9 and 160.8 elk were in the North trend count area, and 600.2 elk were in the South trend count area at the time of the respective surveys. Two trend count areas at OLYM, the Core and Southeast, were surveyed completely. We counted 236 elk in the Core and 90 in the Southeast. In addition, we surveyed a portion of one survey unit twice specifically to collect detection bias data for double-observer sightability trials. Eight collared elk groups were detected for the trials in 2013, bringing the total to 47 double-observer sightability trials in OLYM and thus completing the data acquisition phase for OLYM detection bias model development.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Happe, Patricia; Reid, Mason; Vales, David; Moeller, Barbara; Tirhi, Michelle; McCorquodale, Scott
- Date of Issue
- 2014-04
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- MORA , NRSS , OLYM
- Keywords
- Abundance, Aerial Survey, annual report, Cervus elaphus nelsoni, Cervus elaphus roosevelti, Composition, Distribution, Elk Monitoring, Elwha, Helicopter, High Elevation, Hoh, migratory, Monitoring, Mount Rainier National Park, NCCN, North Coast and Cascades Network, North Rainier, North Rainier herd, Olympic National Park, population trend counts, Queets, Quinault, Radio Collar, resident, Rocky Mountain Elk, Roosevelt Elk, sightability model, South Rainier, South Rainier herd, summer range, trend count, Winter Range
- Subjects
- Ecological Framework: Biological Integrity | Focal Species or Communities | Mammals