Quote:
Originally Posted by calgarychef
Mr. Stewart, I was once told that bears kill about 60% of moose calves, do you think that's an accurate number?
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The answer is of course range dependent and tied to the combination of moose and bear populations in the area, but they could take up to 60% of moose calves in some ranges. Bears are opportunistic feeders and their behaviour is linked to plant phenology in the spring. Phenology refers to the timing of plant events, so if you have an early spring and popular and aspen flower early, bears have a food source that could distract them from habitats where moose and/or other ungulates may be calving. I did a lot of research on phenology back in the 1970s and we demonstrated over a 19 year period the range in days between early and late spring green up and it was more than 30 days- to foraging wildlife that is a lot.
There is also research from alberta where bears have been shown to be the primary predator of elk calves. A bear does not discriminate a calf of one species from another.
I am going to give you a posting of some videos to watch that were taken by people just out in the bush and the opportunity they had to observe bears in action
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDEW-nIg844
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLLd5OOgL8Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y60doLjqeu0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfAIQGk2Bh8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt-Eqrvp4B0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SqqG_LUss0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBBmdays-c4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ap4A2A_3WJY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M12HHvXSKno
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7AjLFLeW34
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iCzcazLOUs
If people are interested I can post access to a number of excellent articles on bear predation of calves of all sorts