Oral presentation at 2019 conference of the American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) in the Participatory Science in Mammalogy session.

1. Potential for Community Photography to Help Evaluate
Molt Phenology in a High-elevation, High-latitude Mammal
Katarzyna Nowak, Shane A. Richards, Amy Panikowski,
Greg Newman, Nicholas E. Young, Aerin Jacob,
Jon P. Beckmann, Joel Berger, Don Reid

2. When do other
animals shed their
winter coats
compared with when
you do?
Can we engage public in climate
science through relatable lens?

3. This time
last year

4. Phenology
• Phenology: seasonal timing of life history events
• Increasingly relevant in framework of global change studies
• Shifts in migration, hibernation, reproduction
• Species adjusting but with lags
- Arrival time at breeding grounds & spring green-up
Mayor et al. 2017 (birds)
Le Corre et al. 2017 (caribou)

5. • Loss of hair or feathers to make room for new growth
• Two mechanisms: Photoperiod & temperature
“Molting is one of most poorly studied life-history events,
particularly in mammals, but also in birds.”
Beltran et al. 2018
Molting
From Mammals of Montana (2012)

6. Bicolor molt: Phenological mismatches
Snowshoe hares
• Plasticity to reduce mismatch
between color & increasingly
snow-free background?
• Snowshoe hares exposed to 3 yrs
variable snowpack
• Show more plasticity in spring
molt onset & rate (white to brown)
than in autumn (brown to white)

7. • Cold-adapted, obligate alpine species occupying high, windy slopes
• Avoid areas where mean daily summer temps >60 F
• Unicolor, white fur: good reflectance
• Well-photographed across their range
Mountain goats

8. Does molt phenology track
warming?
• Earlier shedding: mountain goats responding to
changes in temperature, or shifts in vegetation
phenology, making them less constrained or prone
to heat stress in summer
• Not shedding earlier: 1) photoperiod is main
mechanism of molt 2) limited plasticity in molting

9. Methods 1) Crowd-sourced photos:
CitSci.org iNaturalist

10. Whitefish brewery
East Glacier hostel
Skagway cafe
Posters on public bulletins

11. 2) field-sourced in s. Yukon:
wild & captive
(northern range extent = photo gap)

12. A note on photos
>2000 photos of black
skimmers, s. Brazil
Vieira et al. 2017 Ibis
In search for less invasive methods than capture &
improved methods over examining museum specimens,
researchers of molt in birds have used photography

13. Photo by Jack Brauer
1) SHED AREA can be evaluated (sidelong ideal)
2) DATE is known
3) LOCATION is known or can be approximated
4) RESOLUTION: 300 dpi ideally
5) AGE: We limited our analysis to mature adults
Photo criteria

14. Photoshop process: Crop animal from background, select shed
and unshed areas & create separate layers, obtain pixel counts,
color areas with red and black for quick visuals.

15. Molt progression: from head to toe

16. Data sample so far: >500 photos

17. Our data sources: >70% citizen scientists
Data sample
Skewed towards recent photos;
Many submissions after advertising project

18. Generalized linear mixed
models
• Three types of data – Citizen science, own photos: captive
(repeated samples) & wild (opportunistic camera trap photos)
• Response variable = fraction shed
• Explanatory =
Day of year, year, sex, new kid, elevation, latitude,
Gross Primary Production (GPP)

19. Results:
Citizen science data
• No effect of year detected.
• Females shed two weeks (13.8 days) later than males.
• Shedding varied with latitude (LRT, G(1) = 17.09, p <
0.001) animals shed earlier at higher latitudes.

20. No evidence of temporal change

21. Evidence of earlier molt at higher latitudes

22. Evidence of later molt at higher elevation

23. Elevation and latitude of our photo samples: 4 clusters
*Must disentangle as strong interaction between elevation & latitude
r = -0.863, p < 0.001

24. Captive / Repeated samples data
Sex and kid effects

25. August 14,
2018
Three nannies
July 9,
2018
June 8,
2018
Lactating twins

26. Traditional
Ecological
Knowledge
(TEK)
• Traditional weavers track
molt patterns
• “Nannies finish molt only
after weaning their kids.”
Rofkar 2014

27. Wild
goats
• Camera traps
along active
trails at 3 sites
in s. Yukon

28. Camera-trap data from wild
• Data relatively scant
• Sex effect consistent with captive & crowd-sourced data
• Cannot reliably test kid effect but females with kids tend
to shed later
• No apparent difference between captive & wild
• Most unknowns were males (on basis of extent shed—
Doug Chadwick used this in field)

29. Challenges
• Night activity = night photos (poor resolution)
• Sexing goats from camera trap photos often challenging

30. Conclusions
• No evidence of temporal change
• Results on sex and kids consistent w/ long-term research Dery et al. 2019
- Females with new kids: more heat stress prone?
• Investigation of latitude & elevation enabled by participatory science
- Latitude effect: rate of photoperiod change faster in north
Consistent w/ muskox research Wilkinson 1974
- Elevation: temperature lapse rate
- Latitude and elevation correlated: must disentangle effects
• No apparent effect of GPP or captivity (better nutrition)
• Community photography can broaden research scope, scale & speed
• Boost sample in targeted way: Archives & personal collections

31. Thermoregulate by panting, shade-seeking, night activity
Perhaps also: elevation gain, water use,
active rubbing to remove coat
If do not shed earlier…

32. Photo by Rod Spider

33. Tick-related “molt”
Photo by Sumio Harada
Tick prevalence: Indirect climate change effects

34. Thank you!

35. Questions & Suggestions?
Kate Nowak; knowak02@gmail.com
@katzyna #MountainGoatMoltProject