Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The importance of data mining for conservation science: a case study on the wolverine

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Biodiversity and Conservation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Assessing the scale of ecological changes that have occurred since the onset of the Anthropocene is challenging. One major problem is that of shifting baselines, whereby the norms we set for judging the state of species, populations, or ecosystems change over time due to incomplete information. Here we show how data mining can be used to fill some of the information gaps fueling shifting baselines. We used as example an elusive species, the wolverine (Gulo gulo), given that information gaps are so prevailing for such species. We applied the concept of data mining to search documents hosted on publicly accessible online repositories and found information about the historical occurrence of wolverines that allowed us to revise their historical range in eastern North America. We found 12 historical accounts attesting the presence of wolverines in various parts of the Maritime Provinces of Canada, of which 11 were new to contemporary science. According to our results, the eastern limit of the historical range of the wolverine should be extended to include the current jurisdictions of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Biological change is the central paradigm of species status assessments. We show that online repositories of public domain literature can now be critical sources of information to assess biological change, including in the case of elusive species. Data mining constitutes a productive tool to uncover useful knowledge hidden in a sea of digitized historical information, and should thus allow researchers and conservationists to more effectively mitigate the problem of shifting baselines.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abramov A, Belant J, Wozencraft C (2009) Gulo gulo. The IUCN red list of threatened species, version 2014.2. http://www.iucnredlist.org. Accessed 3 Nov 2014

  • Adams AL (1873) Field and forest rambles, with notes and observations on the natural history of eastern Canada. Henry S. King & Company, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bakker P (1989) “The language of the coast tribes is half Basque”: a Basque-American Indian pidgin in use between Europeans and Native Americans in North America, ca. 1540-ca. 1640. Anthropol Linguistics 31:117–147

    Google Scholar 

  • Balaguer L, Escudero A, Martín-Duque JF, Mola I, Aronson J (2014) The historical reference in restoration ecology: re-defining a cornerstone concept. Biol Conserv 176:12–20

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banfield AWF (1974) The mammals of Canada. University of Toronto Press, Toronto

    Google Scholar 

  • Boardman SL (1903) The naturalist of the St. Croix: memoir of George A. Boardman. Published by the author, Bangor

    Google Scholar 

  • Brin S, Lawrence L (1998) The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual web search engine. Comp Net ISDN Sys 30:107–117

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown JH (1984) On the relationship between abundance and distribution of species. Am Nat 124:255–279

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chamberlain M (1892) Mammals of New Brunswick. Bull Nat Hist Soc New Brunswick 10:30–33

    Google Scholar 

  • Clavero M (2016) Species substitutions driven by anthropogenic positive feedbacks: Spanish crayfish species as a case study. Biol Conserv 193:80–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clavero M, Delibes M (2013) Using historical accounts to set conservation baselines: the case of Lynx species in Spain. Biodivers Conserv 22:1691–1702

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clavero M, Villero D (2014) Historical ecology and invasion biology: long-term distribution changes of introduced freshwater species. Bioscience 64:145–153

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clavero M, Hermoso V (2015) Historical data to plan the recovery of the European eel. J Appl Ecol 52:960–968

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clavero M, Nores C, Kubersky-Piredda S, Centeno-Cuadros A (2015) Interdisciplinarity to reconstruct historical introductions: solving the status of cryptogenic crayfish. Biol Rev. doi:10.1111/brv.12205)

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • COSEWIC (2003) COSEWIC assessment and update status report on the wolverine Gulo gulo in Canada. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, Ottawa

    Google Scholar 

  • COSEWIC (2012) COSEWIC assessment process, categories, and guidelines. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, Ottawa

    Google Scholar 

  • COSEWIC (2014) COSEWIC assessment and status report on the wolverine Gulo gulo in Canada. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, Ottawa

    Google Scholar 

  • Dalerum F, Kunkel K, Angerbjörn A, Shults BS (2009) Diet of wolverines (Gulo gulo) in the western Brooks Range, Alaska. Polar Res 28:246–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dawson JW (1848) A hand book of the geography and natural history of the province of Nova Scotia. James Dawson & Son, Pictou

    Google Scholar 

  • de Bougainville LA (1861) Mémoire de Bougainville sur l’état de la Nouvelle-France à l’époque de la guerre de Sept ans, (1757). Revue maritime et coloniale, 1861(mai): 561–609 (in French)

  • de L’Hermite J (1970) Mémoire consernant l’abbaye des Chaleurs au sud du fleuve Saint Laurans—sans lieus 1727. La revue d’histoire de la Société historique Nicolas-Denys 1(2–3):30–48 (in French)

    Google Scholar 

  • Denys N (1672a) Histoire naturelle des peuples, des animaux, des arbres & plantes de l’Amerique septentrionale, & de ses divers climats. Avec une description exacte de la pêche des moluës, tant sur le grand-banc qu’à la coste, & de tout ce qui s’y pratique de plus particulier, &c. Claude Barbin, Paris (in French)

  • Denys N (1672b) Description geographique et historique des costes de l’Amerique septentrionale avec l’histoire naturelle du païs. Claude Barbin, Paris (in French)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Diéreville (1708) Relation du voyage du Port Royal de l’Acadie, ou de la Nouvelle France, dans laquelle on voît un détail des divers mouvemens de la mer dans une traversée de long cours; de la description du païs, les occupations des françois qui y sont établis, les manieres des differentes nations sauvages, leurs superstitions & leurs chasses; avec une dissertation exacte sur le castor. Jean-Baptiste Besongne, Rouen. (in French)

  • Dijk JV, Gustavsen L, Mysterud A, May R, Flagstad Ø, Brøseth H, Andersen R, Andersen R, Steen H, Landa A (2008) Diet shift of a facultative scavenger, the wolverine, following recolonization of wolves. J Anim Ecol 77:1183–1190

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • DiNatale A (2014) The ancient distribution of bluefin tuna fishery: how coins can improve our knowledge. Collect Vol Sci Pap ICCAT 70(6):2828–2844

    Google Scholar 

  • Elith J, Leathwick JR (2009) Species distribution models: ecological explanation and prediction across space and time. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 40:677–697

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Forbes GJ, McAlpine DF, Scott FW (2010) Mammals of the Atlantic Maritime Ecozone. In: McAlpine DF, Smith IM (eds) Assessment of species diversity in the Atlantic Maritime Ecozone. NRC Research Press, Ottawa, pp 693–718

    Google Scholar 

  • Ganong WF (1887) The marine mollusca of New Brunswick. Bull Nat Hist Soc New Brunswick 6:17–61

    Google Scholar 

  • Ganong WF (1910) The identity of the animals and plants mentioned by the early voyagers to eastern Canada and Newfoundland. Trans R Soc Can 3(series 3, section 2):197–242

  • Gilpin JB (1872) On the Mammalia of Nova Scotia. Proc Trans Nova Sco Inst Nat Sci 3:109–126

    Google Scholar 

  • Golden H, Henry JD, Becker EF, Goldstein MI, Morton JM, Frost D, Poe AJ (2007) Estimating wolverine population size using quadrat sampling of tracks in snow. Wildl Biol 13(Suppl 2):52–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths NES (2005) From migrant to Acadian: a North American border people. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal

    Google Scholar 

  • Gwyn J (2003) The Mi’kmaq, poor settlers, and the Nova Scotia fur trade, 1783-1853. J Can Hist Assoc 14:65–91

    Google Scholar 

  • Gyles J (1736) Memoirs of odd adventures, and strange deliverances, etc. in the captivity of John Giles, Esq., commander of the garrison on Saint George River. S. Kneeland and T. Green, Boston

  • Haliburton TC (1829) An historical and statistical account of Nova Scotia, in two volumes, vol 2. Joseph Howe, Halifax

    Google Scholar 

  • Han J, Kamber M, Pei J (2011) Data mining: concepts and techniques, 3rd edn. Elsevier/Morgan Kaufmann, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Hart M (1992) The history and philosophy of Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg. http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:The_History_and_Philosophy_of_Project_Gutenberg_by_Michael_Hart. Accessed 3 April 2016

  • Harvey DC (1926) The French regime in Prince Edward Island. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Hortal J, Jiménez-Valverde A, Gómez JF, Lobo JM, Baselga A (2008) Historical bias in biodiversity inventories affects the observed environmental niche of the species. Oikos 117:847–858

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Internet Archives (2004) Internet Archives: universal access to all knowledge. https://archive.org/details/SDForumBK. Accessed 17 May 2015

  • IUCN (2012) IUCN Red List categories and criteria: version 3.1, vol 2. Gland, Switzerland

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawton JH (1999) Are there general laws in ecology? Oikos 84:177–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LeClercq C (1692) Nouvelle relation de la Gaspesie, qui contient les mœurs & la religion des sauvages gaspesiens porte-croix, adorateurs du soleil, & d’autres peuples de l’Amerique septentrionale, dit le Canada. Thomas Amaulry, Paris (in French)

    Google Scholar 

  • Loring S, Spiess A (2007) Further documentation supporting the former existence of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in northern Quebec-Labrador. Arctic 60:7–16

    Google Scholar 

  • McAlpine DF (1994) “Boardman, George Augustus”, in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, volume 13. University of Toronto/Université Laval. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/boardman_george_augustus_13E.html. Accessed 10 Sept 2015

  • McClenachan L, Ferretti F, Baum JK (2012) From archives to conservation: why historical data are needed to set baselines for marine animals and ecosystems. Conserv Letters 5:349–359

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Monro A (1855) New Brunswick; with a brief outline of Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Their history, civil divisions, geography, and productions; with statistics of the several counties; affording views of the resources and capabilities of the provinces, and intended to convey useful information, as well to their inhabitants, as to emigrants, strangers, and travellers, and for the use of schools. Richard Nugent, Halifax

  • Parker G (2004) Men of the autumn woods: non-resident big-game hunting in New Brunswick—the golden years 1885–1935. Parker G, Sackville

    Google Scholar 

  • Pauly D (1995) Anecdotes and the shifting baseline syndrome of fisheries. Trends Ecol Evol 10:430

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Proulx R, Massicotte P, Pépino M (2013) Googling trends in conservation biology. Conserv Biol 28:44–51

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Raymond WO (1898) At Portland Point. New Brunswick Mag 1:6–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Raymond WO (1905) Glimpses of the past: history of the St. John River A. D. 1604–1784. Raymond WO, Saint John

    Google Scholar 

  • Robichaud D (2009) Caraquet en éphémérides: première partie (1686–1913). La revue d’histoire de la Société historique Nicolas-Denys 38(1):7–147 (in French)

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott FW, Hebda AJ (2004) Annotated list of the mammals of Nova Scotia. Proc Nova Scotian Inst Sci 42(2):189–208

    Google Scholar 

  • Seton ET (1909) Life histories of northern animals, vol 2. Scribner’s and Sons, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Slough BG (2007) Status of the wolverine Gulo gulo in Canada. Wildl Biol 13(suppl 2):76–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Squires WA (1968) The mammals of New Brunswick. Monographic Series, vol 5. The New Brunswick Museum, Saint-John

    Google Scholar 

  • Steffen W, Crutzen PJ, McNeill JR (2007) The Anthropocene: are humans now overwhelming the great forces of Nature? Ambio 36:614–621

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland G (1861) A manual of the geography and natural and civil history of Prince Edward Island for the use of schools, families and emigrants. John Ross, Charlottetown

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tyrrell JB (1888) The Mammalia of Canada. The Copp Clark Company Limited, Toronto

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • van Zyll de Jong CG (1975) The distribution and abundance of the wolverine (Gulo gulo) in Canada. Can Field-Nat 89:431–437

    Google Scholar 

  • Virkkala R, Alanko T, Laine T, Tiainen J (1993) Population contraction of the white-tailed woodpecker Endrocopos leucotos in Finland as a consequence of habitat alteration. Biol Conserv 66:47–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zalasiewicz J, Williams M, Smith A, Barry TL, Coe AL, Brown PR, Brenchley P, Cantrill D, Gale A, Gibbard P, Gregory FJ, Hounslow MW, Kerr AC, Pearson P, Knox R, Powell J, Waters C, Marshall J, Oates M, Rawson P, Stone P (2008) Are we now living in the Anthropocene? GSA Today 18:4–8

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Funding for this research was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (through the NSERC-CREATE training program EnviroNorth), the Canada Research Chairs Program, and the New Brunswick Innovation Fund. Funding agencies did not influence study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation of data, writing of the document, or submission of the article.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Daniel Gallant

    Present address: Kouchibouguac National Park of Canada, 186 Route 117, Kouchibouguac, NB, E4X 2P1, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chaire de Recherche du Canada en biodiversité nordique and Centre d’Études Nordiques, Université du Québec à Rimouski, 300 Allée des Ursulines, Rimouski, QC, G5L 3A1, Canada

    Daniel Gallant & Dominique Berteaux

  2. Chaire de recherche du Canada en écologie polaire et boréale, Université de Moncton, 18 Antonine-Maillet, Moncton, NB, E1A 3E9, Canada

    Daniel Gallant, Lindsay Y. Gauvin & Nicolas Lecomte

Authors
  1. Daniel Gallant
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lindsay Y. Gauvin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Dominique Berteaux
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Nicolas Lecomte
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel Gallant.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Communicated by Dirk Sven Schmeller.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gallant, D., Gauvin, L.Y., Berteaux, D. et al. The importance of data mining for conservation science: a case study on the wolverine. Biodivers Conserv 25, 2629–2639 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-016-1188-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-016-1188-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation