Hunters as citizen-scientists: The case of archery deer hunters in Illinois, U.S.A.

Hunters can play important roles in wildlife conservation beyond managing populations of individual species through harvests. A long-term project in Illinois, begun in 1992, has engaged archery deer hunters to record numbers... [ view full abstract ]

Hunters can play important roles in wildlife conservation beyond managing populations of individual species through harvests. A long-term project in Illinois, begun in 1992, has engaged archery deer hunters to record numbers and species of ten mammals and birds observed during their days afield. This study relies on the same 4,000 archery deer hunters. Hunters were initially selected at random and (to address attrition) replaced with randomly selected hunters when necessary. Observations reported are used in conjunction with other population studies to provide population trends in the state. Through the course of the project hunters’ sightings have been consistent with biological field studies denoting trends for bobcat, coyote, white-tailed deer, gray fox, raccoon turkey, and squirrel populations. For example, during the 1992 archery season 1,239 hunters observed an average of .5 bobcats for the year. By 2015 that average had increased to 11.1 bobcats, mirroring the trend in data collected through road kills, radio tracking, and other methods. Conversely, for the 1991 season hunters reported an average of 2.5 gray fox sighted; however, the number sighted during the 2016 season had declined to .3. This decline was reflective of data collected by other means (e.g., trapper harvest, road kill collections). Hunters in this study are providing field reports and are therefore serving in the role of citizens-scientists. Discussion will focus on other roles in which hunters can serve to further wildlife management data collection and program evaluation, and enhance wildlife conservation.