After the first month of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resource’s $1.6 million, six-year northeastern Minnesota moose mortality study, it seems that researchers are contributing to the moose population decline.
Of the 111 moose that were radio-collared, five (4.5 percent) died during the first month of the study. Four animals succumbed to “captured-related” causes, while one was proposed to have perished outside of a two-week capture mortality window, possibly as a wolf kill. Wolves typically take old or infirm animals…it’s not hard to speculate that this moose had been weakened by the capture process and was more easily taken by wolves. Not reported was whether any of the recovered moose had been carrying fetuses, obviously an additional loss to dwindling moose numbers.
Researchers plan to locate surviving collared moose cows this spring and will attempt to capture and radio-collar 50 moose calves. Will the same “capturerelated” mortality be expected for these calves? Since moose cows are dangerously protective of their young, will the cows need to be re-captured to allow researchers near the calves…subjecting the mothers to additional “capturerelated” mortality? Should any of these cows die, their newborn calves would surely not survive without the care and protection of their mothers.
Over the course of this six-year study will additional moose need to be captured and radio-collared as moose die, collar batteries fail, etc.? This “capture-related” mortality could amount to a significant loss, should the moose herd continue to decline annually by 35 percent as happened over the past year. When a collared cow moose is killed, not only is the cow lost, but so are its potential future offspring and its offspring’s offspring.
When the DNR mortality study is completed six years from now, researchers may not only have some clue as to why the moose herd had become virtually non-existent in northeastern Minnesota, but may also realize that they themselves had hastened the decline.
Bob LaMettry
Grand Marais
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