You have a harvest decision to make. We deliver the number it should rest on.
For landowners, forest companies and wildlife managers who need to know how many moose the land actually carries, and who need to be able to show where the number comes from when someone questions it.
What you get
Density, sex ratio and calves per cow for your area. Each measure with a 95 % confidence interval, and with a verdict on whether the precision was enough or not. The density is corrected for the share of the animals the survey actually saw, because we measure that share in the field instead of assuming it.
The report comes with the underlying record: which sample plots were chosen and how the selection is repeated, which map data were used and the date they were fetched. Someone else should be able to take your numbers and check the arithmetic. That is the whole point of buying an estimate rather than a count.
What we need from you
Less than you think. We fetch moose management areas (älgförvaltningsområden, ÄFO) and moose management units (älgskötselområden, ÄSO) straight from the county administrative board's (Länsstyrelsen's) map service, so it is usually enough for you to tell us which area it is. If you have your own boundaries, such as a property or a holding, we read them in.
What we need is a decision from you after the pilot round. The pilot measures how unevenly the moose sit on your particular land, and only then does anyone know how large a share of the area has to be surveyed to meet the precision target. You get a price and a clear statement of what each level gives, and you decide the scope.
If the land has access bans, military activity or anything else that restricts flying, we need to know early. We fetch what is registered, but not everything is in a register.
What a season looks like
- We design the surveyThe grid of sample plots is laid out, airspace and obstacles are screened out, and the mission files are written. Nobody needs to be on site.
- The pilot round is flownA fixed number of sample plots, however large the area. It measures the spread, and so it costs as much on a single property as on a whole moose management area.
- You decide the scopeFrom the pilot we work out how many sample plots are needed to meet the precision target, and what that costs. You choose.
- The main pass is flownThe sample plots you signed off on, plus repeat flights over a quarter of them to measure the detection rate.
- You get the reportThe same format every year, with the underlying record attached, so next year's number can be set beside this year's.
The survey season is the winter half of the year, and the number of flyable days is limited by the weather. An assignment that is to be flown in a given season needs to be booked well before it.
Flying yourselves? Then you can buy the design and the analysis
If you have your own drones with a thermal camera, or an operator you usually hire, you do not need to buy the flying from us. What makes the number reliable is not who holds the sticks but how the sample plots are chosen, how they are flown and how the counts become an estimate.
You get the same as our own pilots get: the sample plots, ready-made routes for each plot and your drone model, the visiting order, suggested take-off points and the field sheet with what the pilot needs to know about each plot. You fly, and send back the images and the flight logs. We do the analysis and deliver the same report as otherwise.
Three things have to hold for the number to hold. The plots are flown where they lie, and a plot that cannot be reached is left out and never swapped for another. A quarter of the plots are flown again, so that the detection rate is measured. And the flying happens in daylight, because sex and age are determined from the image. If you agree to that, flying yourselves works just as well as having us do it, and you pay only for the part you do not already have.
What it costs
We work out the price for your area. What drives the cost is not the area but how unevenly the animals sit and how many they are, because precision requires a number of observed animals, not a share of the land. That is why a large area seldom costs proportionally more than a small one, and why we do not sell by the hectare.
The pilot round is a fixed and small outlay that makes the rest possible to price. It assumes land with enough moose, in practice at least about 150, and the cost page (in Swedish) shows how much land that is in your county. Get in touch with an area and we will do the sums.
Read on about moose surveys
- The method behind the moose survey What we build on, and where we have taken it further.
- How to read the survey report What a confidence interval means, and when a number cannot be used.
- How a moose survey is flown Flight parameters, terrain following and what we exclude before anything takes off.
- What a moose survey costs (in Swedish) Why the price follows the number of moose you need to see, not the area.
- When in the year the survey is flown (in Swedish) What the weather and the light require, and why the season needs room for lost days.
Contact
Tell us which area it is, and we will come back with what a pilot round costs and what it gives. If you have your own boundaries we take them, otherwise we fetch the area's.