Lack of complete snow cover for the past 3 winters in southwestern Alaska has forced agencies to postpone conducting moose surveys due to the likelihood of underestimating the population/lack of comparability to previous surveys. Poor snow conditions are known to lower the sightability of moose, yet, for most regions of Alaska, the variation in moose sightability during suboptimal conditions has not yet been quantified. Because scientists are predicting less snowfall in this region over the long term, research was initiated to estimate sightability correction factors (SCFc) to apply to abundance estimates.
