Detecting Furbearer Population Trends in Alberta using Trapper Logbooks 2018 - 2024
Detecting Furbearer Population Trends in Alberta
Using Trapper Logbooks 2018 - 2024 Alberta Conservation Association
An Interim summary report analyzing the first seven years of runpole data
Detecting furbearer population trends is a difficult task when relying on harvest records alone. Alberta Conservation Association (ACA) has been working with Alberta Trappers Association (ATA) to develop an approach that uses trapping effort to better understand furbearer trends.
Since 2018, a subset of trappers within Alberta has voluntarily provided detailed harvest and effort information recorded in personal logbooks submitted annually. We synthesized these logbook data to estimate furbearer trends over large spatial scales. These logs are cast to gain a measure of catch-per-unit effort (CPUE), and over time a change in CPUE can indicate whether harvest is sustainable.
We learned that many trappers were already keeping detailed personal records of their effort before using standardized logbooks. By using a standardized approach, we assess if the harvest and effort data provided by trappers enables us to detect CPUE for a given furbearer species, as well as detect population metrics at meaningful spatial scales.
Trappers have submitted logbooks from 389 individual RFMAs up to 2024, although the consistency of submissions on an annual basis from individual traplines is well below this number. Logbook submissions have varied from year to year ranging from 126 in the first year, to a high of 207 in year three, and then dipped well below 200 for years four through seven.
This decline in logbook submissions is a concern if this trend continues. To gain robust estimates of marten abundance among all FMZs we predict that at least 300 logbooks are needed annually.
Authors:
Michael Jokinen, B.Sc., P.Biol. Robert Anderson, M.Sc., P.Biol. Sue Peters, B.Sc., M.Sc., P.Biol.
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