Dash Cam videos on YouTube™ offer insights into factors related to moose-vehicle collisions.

To gain a better understanding of the dynamics of moose-vehicle collisions, we analyzed 96 videos of moose-vehicle interactions recorded by vehicle dash-mounted cameras (Dash Cams) that had been posted to the video-sharing website YouTube™. Our objective was to determine the effects of road conditions, season and weather, moose behavior, and driver response to actual collisions compared to near misses when the collision was avoided. We identified 11 variables that were consistently observable in each video and that we hypothesized would help to explain a collision or near miss.

Road and rail side vegetation management implications of habitat use by moose relative to brush cutting season.

Plants cut at different times produce resprouts that vary in their nutritional value relative to when they are cut. To determine how vegetation management in transportation (road and rail) corridors at different times of the year could influence browse quality in the years following cutting, and how this could potentially influence encounters between herbivores and vehicles, we undertook a 3-year study. In 2001, at a wildlife viewing area near Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, we established a control area and treatment areas where shrubs and trees that are used as food by moose (Alces alces) were cut at the beginning of June, July, August, September, and October.

Influence of cutting time on brush response: implications for herbivory in linear (transportation) corridors.

An experiment was conducted to determine the influence the time of brush-cutting can have on plant regrowth and attractiveness to herbivores that browse in linear corridors. The influence of cutting time on leaf flush and senescence, shoot morphometry, and biomass was measured for 3 consecutive years after initial brush-cutting. Results indicate that morphological and phenological attributes of three woody deciduous plants were influenced by the timing of brush-cutting for up to 3 years after initial cutting.