Investigating Methods for Monitoring Forest Grouse Trends in Alberta
Final Report
Author(s)
Michael Jokinen, B.Sc., P.Biol.
Summary
There is concern that spruce grouse (Canachites canadensis, formerly Falcipennis canadensis) numbers may be trending lower in Alberta, although the data to validate this assumption is lacking. Alberta Environment and Parks asked Alberta Conservation Association to develop an approach to better understand grouse trends over space and time. We began in 2021 with three main tasks: firstly, we summarized spruce grouse harvest data from 2015 to 2021 to beter understand hunter success spatially and among years; secondly, we surveyed trappers regarding their insight on spruce grouse numbers; and thirdly, we trialed a method to detect occupancy based on the presence of spruce grouse pellets.
From 2015 to 2019, spruce grouse harvest and hunter numbers have shown a general increasing trend, apart from a decrease in harvest during 2017. The average annual harvest of spruce grouse reported was 6,648 (range: 2,998–8,856) over seven years (2015 through 2021), taken by an average of 2,863 (range: 1,175–4,301) hunters that were willing to voluntarily report this information.
We received and summarized responses from 131 Registered Fur Management Area licence holders, almost half of whom believed the three-year trend (2018/19 to 2020/21) for forest grouse has held stable, while almost a third believed numbers were decreasing.
Lastly, we adapted a pellet survey protocol developed in Minnesota and tested it in Alberta in April and May of 2021. Of the 13 transects we surveyed, spruce grouse pellets were detected at three, all from the Boreal Natural Region. A transect takes about 30 minutes to complete and surveyors require some guidance to confidently differentiate between pellets dropped by spruce versus ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus). The pellet count survey proved to be simple and could become an effective method to collect proxy data for determining grouse trends; however, conducting the surveys over a broad spatial area would be logistically challenging.