Interobserver Agreement among a Staff Member and Visitors at a Wolf Sanctuary

The purpose of this study was to determine whether untrained visitors at a wolf sanctuary could collect behavioral data, within an acceptable range of interobserver agreement (IOA), using a freely available instrument on their smartphones. Two independent groups of untrained visitors continuously recorded one target behavior only or two target behaviors simultaneously. Observations occurred during a 50-min educational presentation with multiple wolves. Whereas IOA was at or above 80% for all participants, kappa was below the acceptable range of 0.6 or greater for some participants observing two target behaviors simultaneously. • Clinicians may consider the use of untrained observers for limited data collection purposes • Simple recording rules or pictures of conspicuous target behaviors may facilitate acceptable interobserver agreement • Clinicians may consider the use of a similar smartphone data collection instrument for untrained observers • Clinicians should be cautious of any competing smartphone behaviors that may interfere with the behavior of observing a target.