Winter and Summer Moose Day are two events that happen each year in the Laramie area. The idea is to allow anyone in the Laramie area to adopt a pre-designed route, attend a training, and survey their route on a particular day at the same time as all the other volunteers. By the end of that day, we should have a better idea of whether moose can be found in that location that year.
iNaturalist is an easy to use online databse where we will store our Moose Day data. Moose Day participants are required to sign up for an iNaturalist account (free and easy!), where they can then easily upload Moose Day data from the field! We will include an iNaturalist walk though at our Winter Moose Day training this February.
Adopting a route is simple. First, if you haven't already, please sign up on our free data collection portal, iNaturalist (we will share more about iNaturalist at the training!); we will be using this as part of our data collection process on Moose Day. Then, review the routes coresponding to the season you are participating, Summer or Winter, and select Two routes that are appropriate for you; a first and a second choice. Make sure you select routes that haven't been adopted already (adopted routes will be marked as such). Remember the area that each route is located in, and head to the registration form.
Routes are awarded as they are selected, on a first come, first served basis. You will receive an email verifying your registration and the route (either first or second choice) and your route will be marked as adopted. In the unlikely case that both of your routes were selected before your registration we will contact you directly to let you select a third option, or to see if you might be interested in combining parties.
Training is required for first-time Moose Day participants! We have four videos that will cover a bit about moose ecology, how to identify moose gender and age, how to determine if tracks are moose or something else, and more. The videos are available for watching on your time schedule (videos will take around 25 minutes to watch). New volunteers will need to take and pass a training quiz after watching the videos in order to participate in Moose Day. Please complete the training quiz by Thursday, July 23rd so you can receive your datasheets!
If you are a returning Moose Day'er, training is not required, but still highly recommended. Watch whatever videos you need a refresher on!
Contact our project coordinator, Mason, via email (mlee37@uwyo.edu) or phone (307-766-6240) and she will be happy to assist you!