What's Next: Defining Methods, Recruiting Volunteers, and Finishing Fundraising

 

We used otter puns shamelessly in social media promotion throughout our crowdfunding campaign. Here are some of the best that you "otter" check out: "Otter fact of the day: by water, a group of otters is called a 'raft', while by land it is called a 'romp'. So join the romp and contribute to our crowdfunding campaign today!"

As our crowdfunding campaign comes to a close, we would first like to thank the 46 backers who helped us exceed our funding goal. Along with fully funding the citizen science part of our project and providing us with a valuable learning experience on this increasingly important funding model, this campaign has also allowed a remarkable diversity of people to engage with the Alpine Otters project, which has always been one of its goals. Your support validates the project's ecological, conservation, and social merits. Thanks again to everyone who donated to our project; who "liked", "shared", "retweeted", and "upvoted" it on social media; and who contacted us with otter observations, questions, and ideas of their own.

 

"Don't leave us out in the cold as you consider your year-end giving. Dive into our crowdfunding campaign page today to find out more about our Alpine Otters project."

But the Alpine Otter project itself is just beginning: now we need to refine data collection protocols and start recruiting volunteers. And we still need to continue fundraising efforts, both for this project as well as our general operations--a never-ending saga for non-profits. By the way, you do still have all day tomorrow to contribute to this campaign... just saying.

 

Otter tracks are relatively easy to find in the snow, thanks to the slide paths left behind after they drag themselves through the deep powder. Accurately and precisely measuring those tracks in such a loose substrate... not so much. But for our demographic analysis, volunteers will need to record track A. width, B. length, C. straddle, and D. stride.

To answer one of our key questions -- is there a resident, breeding river otter population on the Beartooth Plateau or are they simply seasonal transients from lower elevations -- we will need to collect gender and age ratio data, which we will do through snow tracking. Our methods will be based on those designed by Risto Sulkava in 2007 , which use track and body (slide) width measurements to estimate the gender and age of the otter who left the tracks: males are typically bigger than females, while adults are clearly bigger than juveniles. And by recording the direction that tracks are traveling and the approximate age of the tracks, we may be able to distinguish individual otters in the dataset and thus be able to estimate the total population size. But even though the slide paths that otters leave behind after dragging themselves through the snow may be relatively easy to find, measuring those track characteristics in the soft powder can be much more difficult. So we will need to train volunteers and provide them with precise data collection protocols -- include claws in track length measurement? (no), record back toe-to-front heel in stride measurements? (yes), measure straddle from the inside or outside of the paws? (inside) -- as well as safety protocols -- should you go out to measure a track on a thin, floating iceberg? (no!), should you continue with a transect in the face of an oncoming blizzard/thunderstorm/other mountain weather scenario (NO!), should you attempt to record otter track measurements from a live otter? (NO!!!)

 

Identifying the content of a red fox scat. After first baking the scats at 100 degrees Celsius for 24 hours to kill parasites (after all, no body wants to get a tapeworm), we then rinse the scats through fine mesh screens to filter out undigested content (A). Using taxonomic keys and reference samples, we can then identify the food items consumed, sometimes down to species. Above, we have the jaws (B) and paws (C) of a northern pocket gopher, and some whitebark pine nut shells (D), all recovered from a Rocky Mountain red fox scat collected on the Beartooth Plateau.

Protocols for scat collection will be much easier, since all volunteers need to do is to bag them, tag them with their GPS coordinates, and look for any other animal sign in the area (i.e., other mesocarnivores that came down to check out the otter latrine for themselves). But we still need to produce clear, simple datasheets to record these details (as well as otter track measurements and locations, other mesocarnivore track locations, general observations, etc.) in the field. Back at the lab, we will use fish scale taxonomic keys to identify the specific fish that alpine otters are preying on, and we will digitally record these results as well as those from the field data sheets.

 

Backcountry skiers in the Beartooths. We will need volunteers who are skilled skiers to safely and effectively collect data in this remote landscape.

In addition to ironing out our protocols and methods, it is also time to start recruiting volunteers! Our partners the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Foundation and the Montana Backcountry Alliance will assist in this effort: we hope to pick up some recruits from the upcoming Bozeman screening of the Backcountry Film Festival, hosted this year by MBA and the Montana State University Backcountry Ski Club. We've also already been getting emails and phone calls from folks who want to volunteer: just as we met our crowdfunding goal, I am confident that we will meet our volunteer recruitment goal as well. But before we send these folks out into the hills, it is crucial that they are (1) adequately prepared for the job with all necessary skills and experience, equipment, physical condition, etc., (2) thoroughly trained on safety and data collection protocols, and (3) have the right attitude for field work: they must be good at following directions, good at independent problem-solving and decision-making, a cooperative team member, cheerful in all weather, have a safety-first mentality (and not be afraid to speak up if they think something is unsafe), and be dedicated to the project and its goals. A little bit of a biology background is a plus, but not necessary.

 

Former YERC "coyote crew" field technician Amy Seaman skiing on the Beartooth Plateau.

We will also continue fundraising efforts, both for this and for YERC's other projects and general expenses. Even though the citizen science data collection and transportation expenses have been covered by this crowdfunding campaign, and some video production and YERC overhead expenses were covered by a grant from the Jerry Metcalf Foundation, we are still seeking funding for:

EQUIPMENT: remote trail cameras to record behavior at otter latrine sites (as well as other non-invasive applications in future projects): $600; a dissecting microscope for the dietary analysis, better yet one with a built in digital camera to record the scat content being identified: $400-$700; a new computer that won't crash when I try to run habitat selection models with all this high resolution satellite data: $2,000.

LAB WORK: DNA can also be extracted from the scat samples we collect for our dietary analysis: with $1,000, we could extract DNA from up to 20 scat samples, which could be used in future population genetics studies.

SALARY: not including time spent writing proposals, running fundraisers, recruiting volunteers, defining protocols, and all the other work that goes into preparing a project like this, we expect to spend an additional 300 hours of staff time on the subsequent analysis and reporting (and that is probably an optimistically low estimate). It would be nice if this work contributed to our personal salaries, not to mention the overhead costs of running YERC's lab.

We will continue approaching grant programs, charitable foundations, and individual donors to help raise remaining funds. But in the meantime, we are very excited and grateful to have funding secured for three of the project's most important components: popular media video production, citizen science engagement, and data collection on the Beartooth Plateau this spring. Thanks again!

 

"Stick your nose into our crowdfunding campaign, and get involved with our Alpine Otters project!"