Data from: A dog makes a difference: Exploration of potential biases in moose-hunting associated citizen science

The collection of citizen data is often employed to generate insights
regarding species distribution, population sizes, and population
structure; however, biases inherent in citizen science are seldom
addressed. In this study, we examined the factors influencing
hunters' observations of moose, Alces alces, during the moose hunting
season in Finland. By analyzing approximately 0.5 million moose
observations collected between 2017 and 2021, we discovered that, in
addition to the population size from the previous year, the progression of
the hunting season due to culling had a significant impact on the
observations. The effects of hunting effort, including the time spent
hunting and the number of hunters, were notably influenced by the use of
dogs in the hunting. However, different classes of moose exhibited varied
responses to the presence of dogs, suggesting a potential for biases in
sex ratio and population size estimation. Additionally, landscape
characteristics also affected observations, which may suggest variations
in the potential for visual observation or differences in moose behavior.
We discuss the implications of our findings on biases in the population
parameter estimation and outline several areas for future research.