After five years of studying the issue, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it would not list Minnesota moose as a federally endangered species.
On Tuesday, September 15, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied a petition to protect a moose subspecies found in the Midwest under the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity and Honor the Earth filed this petition in July 2015, and the Service launched a status review in June 2016.
Moose numbers have fallen dramatically since 2006, when the Minnesota DNR aerial count estimated there was 8,840 moose in northeastern Minnesota.
Results of the January 2020 aerial moose survey by the Minnesota DNR indicated the Minnesota moose population in northeastern Minnesota remains stable at 3,150 animals. Still, there are no signs the numbers will return to the 2006 estimate of 8,840 anytime soon, if ever.
And, the 2020 DNR report noted that reproductive success, a key factor for moose survival overtime, remains low.
Multiple factors are contributing to killing moose, according to the wildlife researchers. Scientists cite brain worm spread by deer, winter ticks, poor nutrition, parasites, warming temperatures, lack of habitat, and predation by bears and wolves, among other things.
When contacted, Collette Adkins, Carnivore Conservation Director, senior attorney, for the Center of Biological Diversity, said, “I’m incredibly disappointed that the Fish and Wildlife Service has denied Minnesota’s moose the lifesaving protections of the Endangered Species Act.”
Adkins, who works in the Center’s Minneapolis office added, “Growing up in Minnesota, I loved seeing moose during family vacations up north. But climate change, habitat destruction by mining companies and disease are driving moose to the brink. We’ll keep fighting to protect this iconic symbol of the North Woods.”
Had the petition been granted, it would have included moose in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and the moose in North Dakota.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources lists the moose as a species of special concern. Help for Minnesota’s iconic moose is also coming from the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, who are studying the moose and adjusting natural habitats that will allow moose access to plants they need to eat to survive.
The Center for Biological Diversity is a non-profit organization that works to protect endangered species through legal, scientific petitions, creative media and grassroots activism.
Species covered by the endangered species act include protections of critical habitat being destroyed or modified, restrictions on take and trade.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife found that the moose in Minnesota and Canada were biologically the same and therefore determined the moose weren’t eligible for protection at this time. Northern Ontario has an estimated 92,300 moose, which amounts to about a 20 percent decline over the last decade.
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