Artificial night light helps account for observer bias in citizen science monitoring of an expanding large mammal population

1. The integration of citizen scientists into ecological research is transforming how, where, and when data are collected, and expanding the potential scales of ecological studies. Citizen-science projects can provide numerous benefits for participants, while educating and connecting professionals with lay audiences, potentially increasing acceptance of conservation and management actions. However, for all the benefits, collection of citizen-science data is often biased towards areas that are easily accessible (e.g. developments and roadways), and thus data are usually affected by issues typical of opportunistic surveys (e.g. uneven sampling effort). These areas are usually illuminated by artificial light at night (ALAN), a dynamic sensory stimulus that alters the perceptual world for both humans and wildlife.
2. Our goal was to test whether satellite-based measures of ALAN could improve our understanding of the detection process of citizen scientist-reported sightings of a large mammal...