Abstract
Participatory approaches, such as community photography, can engage the public in questions of societal and scientific interest while helping advance understanding of ecological patterns and processes. We combined data extracted from community‐sourced, spatially explicit photographs with research findings from 2018 fieldwork in the Yukon, Canada, to evaluate winter coat molt patterns and phenology in mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus), a cold‐adapted, alpine mammal. Leveraging the community science portals iNaturalist and CitSci, in less than a year we amassed a database of almost seven hundred unique photographs spanning some 4,500 km between latitudes 37.6°N and 61.1°N from 0 to 4,333 m elevation. Using statistical methods accounting for incomplete data, a common issue in community science datasets, we identified the effects of intrinsic (sex and presence of offspring) and broad environmental (latitude and elevation) factors on molt onset and rate and compared our findings with published data. Shedding occurred over a 3‐month period between 29 May and 6 September. Effects of sex and offspring on the timing of molt were consistent between the community‐sourced and our Yukon data and with findings on wild mountain goats at a long‐term research site in west‐central Alberta, Canada. Males molted first, followed by females without offspring (4.4 days later in the coarse‐grained, geographically wide community science sample; 29.2 days later in our fine‐grained Yukon sample) and lastly females with new kids (6.2; 21.2 days later, respectively). Shedding was later at higher elevations and faster at northern latitudes. Our findings establish a basis for employing community photography to examine broad‐scale questions about the timing of ecological events, as well as sex differences in response to possible climate drivers. In addition, community photography can help inspire public participation in environmental and outdoor activities specifically with reference to iconic wildlife.
Highlights
Phenology, the seasonal timing of life history events, is increasingly relevant in the framework of global change studies (Cohen et al, 2018; Horton et al, 2020; Staudinger et al, 2019)
Phenological responses are predicted to be important for high elevation communities (Hodkinson, 2005; Stewart et al, 2019), wildlife at northern latitudes (Berger et al, 2018) and cold-adapted species prone to seasonal mismatches, for example, in coat color, or arrival at calving grounds
Despite the high visibility of massive chunks of hair hanging from species like bison (Bison bison) and muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus) (Berger & Cunningham, 1994; Wilkinson, 1974), for most species little is known about the phenology of shedding, or the extent to which it varies across broad latitudinal or altitudinal gradients (Beltran et al, 2018)
Summary
The seasonal timing of life history events, is increasingly relevant in the framework of global change studies (Cohen et al, 2018; Horton et al, 2020; Staudinger et al, 2019). Their feeding and reproductive activities can result in variation in body condition, both among and between the sexes (Déry et al, 2019) Because of their stature as an iconic mammal of the mountains, and their dramatic seasonal change in pelage, they have for many years attracted high interest from professional and amateur photographers. Photographs provided within and between-season estimates of the proportion of pelage shed, which were fit to a model of molt using Bayesian methods This model estimated the peak rate of shedding and the corresponding day of shedding, and quantified their relation to latitude, elevation, sex, and reproductive state (i.e., if a female is associated with a new kid); the latter two predictors correlating with animal condition. Our results demonstrate that community science can help to identify important environmental predictors of molt (e.g., elevation and latitude), the influence of the state of the animal (e.g., sex, whether caring for young), and quantify the extent of geographical variation in molting
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