Alberta Moose populations

[3blade]

Originally Posted by Nuck99

Some interesting discussion. Let me ask these questions.

What is good Moose Management?

Should Alberta works towards a healthy population of moose consisting of bulls of all ages and lots of antlerless moose?

Should trophy hunting of moose exist in Alberta or should it only be a meat hunt.

Should the GOA create as much opportunity as possible and allow for hunting of both antlered and antlerless animals.

Should the moose populations across the prairie regions be restricted to bulls only?

What are your suggestions and observations if you were to make recommendations to your local biologist?

Become autonomous from Ottawa. End race based access to food. Reinstate the griz hunt. Leave the bow zone as an OTC tag.

The rest of your questions are largely irrelevant as moose are THE target animal for unregulated hunting. Unregulated hunting, predation and ticks are the main causes of moose mortality. Not licensed hunting.

Changing moose tag management is like rearranging deck chairs on the titanic

[fishnguy]

There are numerous reasons cited in many papers for moose population declines at various places. Most have direct relation with resource industry and warmer climate. Resource industry is more or less self explanatory. For example, roads would be the obvious one - more roads, more access for both, hunters and predators, etc. Another example would be clearcutting the forests, removing the cover which moose desperately need for their survival (especially the calves). At the same time, spraying the newly planted areas to kill the “wide leaf” plants to promote growth of commercially desirable species also rids the area of many plants that constitute a good chunk of moose diet. Some studies suggest that starvation is a real threat. This study out of BC, for example, found that more moose die of health related issues, including starvation, than as a result of hunting:

An unexpected finding was that health related mortalities (including apparent starvation) were the proximate cause of 19% of cow moose mortalities. This was second to predation mortalities (53%) and more prevalent than harvest mortalities (16%).

It should be noted, of course, that lack of food is not the only reason a moose can starve to death. As can be seen, predation is the main concern in the areas of BC they studied. However, this is not the case in other areas. For example, according to this article, Minnesota saw a 58% decline in moose population in just over a decade and they see the main cause being the brainworm:

Minnesota saw a 58% decline of the moose population in the northeastern part of the state between 2006 and 2017. A primary driver of the decline is brainworm, a parasite that affects the animal’s nervous system ultimately leading to paralysis and death. Researchers from the University of Minnesota and the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa recently discovered evidence that moose in Minnesota consume species of gastropods —slugs and snails—which are known hosts for the brainworm parasite (Parelaphostrongylus tenuis).

Other research suggests significantly lower fertility and birth rates. One reason, for example, being winter ticks. This study out Vermont suggests the following:

Study Results:
- 87% of adults survived each year, but only 57% of adult cows gave birth, a decline of around 50% compared to birth rates in the early 2000s.
- Only 66% of newborn calves survived their first 60 days.
- Only 49% of calves (8-12 months old) survived their first winter. With no ticks, over 90% of calves would have survived.

Study Conclusions:
- Winter ticks were the main cause in 74% of all mortalities and 91% of winter calf mortalities.
- Winter ticks caused the health and productivity of surviving moose to be very poor, and were the primary factor limiting growth of the moose population.

This last issue is a main concern through out the north east of the US and is a cause of significant population declines. I am familiar first-hand and many probably saw a couple of threads of mine about the winter ticks. The problem is quite severe in, apparently, many areas of Alberta. Where I hunt, I don’t see predation being a major issue. I also know nothing of brainworm and don’t think this is an issue here in Alberta. Winter ticks sure is. This is where the warmer climate comes in because lack of snow in April/May is pretty crucial to the ticks’ successful reproduction cycle. The past few year have been pretty brutal in the bush and I see that not only by the amount of ticks I collect myself, but also by the number of moose I see when out there. It’s no joke. I suspect that there is about zero probability of a calf or even a young moose surviving through spring after walking through parts of the bush I walk through a few times, which they do all day, every day. Most of the south facing slopes of the valleys here are particularly bad; some of north facing ones aren’t much better. Thankfully, this is not as widespread and there are still areas that appear to be tick-free. Those areas where it gets colder sooner and warms up later in the season appear to be suffering a lot less from this problem, for now.

Bad management, of course, is another issue. Like the antlerless tags, for example. Of course, that could be a part of good management though if the goal is to decrease the population, whatever the reason may be for that strategy. Thankfully, there are no antlerless moose tags around this parts of the province.

[Nuck99]

Originally Posted by 3blade

The rest of your questions are largely irrelevant as moose are THE target animal for unregulated hunting. Unregulated hunting, predation and ticks are the main causes of moose mortality. Not licensed hunting.

I disagree with you. In the Foothills and Prairie regions poaching is probably not as prevalent as it is in the northern portions of the province.
When residents hear gunshot after hours they call report a poacher or investigate themselves. Its very difficult to sneak a moose out on private land. Moose thrive in acreage country except along the highways. We have zero predators except for Cougar. Ticks are a problem.

[skidderman]

Originally Posted by Phil McCracken

The real reason will never be told/changed as it would be political suicide...

Someone has it figured out.

[270person]

Originally Posted by Nuck99

I disagree with you. In the Foothills and Prairie regions poaching is probably not as prevalent as it is in the northern portions of the province.
When residents hear gunshot after hours they call report a poacher or investigate themselves. Its very difficult to sneak a moose out on private land. Moose thrive in acreage country except along the highways. We have zero predators except for Cougar. Ticks are a problem.

Depends on how you define poaching I guess. Moose are the dumbest ungulate out there and subject to over harvesting by "legal" hunters exercising their "legal" rights. 24/7/365.

[3blade]

Originally Posted by Nuck99

I disagree with you. In the Foothills and Prairie regions poaching is probably not as prevalent as it is in the northern portions of the province.
When residents hear gunshot after hours they call report a poacher or investigate themselves. It’s very difficult to sneak a moose out on private land. Moose thrive in acreage country except along the highways. We have zero predators except for Cougar. Ticks are a problem.

Didn’t mean that your concerns are irrelevant, but that when management changes ignore the major issues they are bound to fail. We’ve been down this road with antler point restrictions, mountain lion quotas, Suffield, and sheep curl regs, to name a few of many regulatory debacles.

I’m also going to respectfully suggest your focus is on a pretty small area. You’ll notice most other replies bear a significant similarity to mine. Your one spot may have an issue solely with licensed hunters but you addressed the provincial moose management strategy as a whole, and so the responses are in kind.

[fishnguy]

Originally Posted by Ticdoc

You are correct and I think many factors are involved. We have had 2 recent years of tick-caused die-offs across AB. And moose have declined in most of their southern ranges in eastern Canade (NB,NS) and northeastern US (Maine, NH, Vermont, NY) and ticks appear to be main culprit. Dame in Minnesota, Montana, etc, along with Colorado,, etc. Climate change (shorter winters) is good for growing winter ticks. Tic Doc

When I first ran into these buggers, 4-5 years ago now, the information on the web was available, but very random and scarce. I just googled winter ticks trying to find an article that I read in 2019 or so and it seems everyone and their grandma have written about it since. Tons of articles on the subject now (though most just parrot each other). It also appears that quite a few people run into them through out the province like I did here some years ago, places they hunted for many years and never saw a tick before the last year or two.

[wildalberta]

nothing makes sence in this province for managing the wildlife. I know one thing though, ive never heard of so many people getting their harvesting rights until as of late. This has to be the number 1 contributor to decline as nothing is accounted for. i live in NE alberta and the few zones close to home are handing out single digit antlered tags per year, and yet go a bit further south or west and you see tripple digit tag numbers.

[walking buffalo]

Originally Posted by Ticdoc

You are correct and I think many factors are involved. We have had 2 recent years of tick-caused die-offs across AB. And moose have declined in most of their southern ranges in eastern Canade (NB,NS) and northeastern US (Maine, NH, Vermont, NY) and ticks appear to be main culprit. Dame in Minnesota, Montana, etc, along with Colorado,, etc. Climate change (shorter winters) is good for growing winter ticks. Tic Doc

I have a hard time reconciling actual "climate change" and the expansion of winter tick range/population density.

I just don't buy it that a supposed 1 degree temperature change over the last 70 years has allowed ticks to prosper in unusual ways......

Climate change works on both ends of the scale, while allowing a species to prosper at one end of the scale, it will be the demise of the same species at the other end.


Without question, much of recent moose studies has included a bias to excuse wolf predation as a significant factor in population crashes, particularly in the mainland US.


I suspect human intervention is the main cause of tick range expansion.
We are literally driving and carrying these ticks into areas they have not occupied for a while.
If Fishinguy would just stay home...



Regarding moose in 212, specifically in the NE corner, humans are to blame for the reduced population, but it is not hunting. This area has seen an incredible surge in construction of homes, both acreages and higher density. We are simply forcing the moose out.

[Big Grey Wolf]

By far most vulnurbility of moose population in Alberta is preditation both wolf and black bear. When wolf numbers go up moose populations go into the tank. Also over harvest by the 24/7/365 gang shooting pregnant cows in spring hits them hard. Other than prairie/farm regions our moose population is way down in most foothill and northern zones in Alberta.
PS I have only hunted moose for 66 years and more than 30 WMU's in Alberta so what do I know.

[Nuck99]

I'm more familiar with the Prairie and Foothills regions.
The Moose population are way down. Scary low where I live, and our biologist carries on like nothing has changed.

[fishnguy]

Originally Posted by walking buffalo

I have a hard time reconciling actual "climate change" and the expansion of winter tick range/population density.

I just don't buy it that a supposed 1 degree temperature change over the last 70 years has allowed ticks to prosper in unusual ways......

Climate change works on both ends of the scale, while allowing a species to prosper at one end of the scale, it will be the demise of the same species at the other end.


Without question, much of recent moose studies has included a bias to excuse wolf predation as a significant factor in population crashes, particularly in the mainland US.


I suspect human intervention is the main cause of tick range expansion.
We are literally driving and carrying these ticks into areas they have not occupied for a while.
If Fishinguy would just stay home...



Regarding moose in 212, specifically in the NE corner, humans are to blame for the reduced population, but it is not hunting. This area has seen an incredible surge in construction of homes, both acreages and higher density. We are simply forcing the moose out.

Lol.

From my personal observations and experimenting, these ticks do not survive past a couple of days out of their “habitat”. I have no idea how long they have before they must latch on to something, but I saw them expire on their own three days tops after picking them up. By day two you definitely see the difference in their movement, etc. So I highly doubt we are transporting them anywhere. I mean it is (maybe?) plausible, but, in my opinion, highly unlikely.

They have been found on all kinds of other animals (numbers come nothing even remotely close to moose though) that can travel quite a bit, and I would think those animals can transport them from one area to another. However, those numbers would likely not be significant enough to make any difference. Now, with the implosion of the tick population, on the other hand, this may become a normality. But then again, the moose being the main host probably tramps all that into a statistical error range.

I am also not sure why they would have a bias towards predation in their studies. And that one I cited in particular (unless I am thinking of the other one I read completely). They clearly studied the effect of ticks specifically on moose population and it is hard to confuse it with predation when the bodies of calves they recover are covered in bloody ticks head to hoof. The one from BC I cited above as well straight up says that predation the main and by far the largest effect on moose mortality in the areas they studied. That was a pretty general study though, from my understanding. Most of the areas I hunt do not have the predation problem, from my personal observation. I have never found a definitive predator kill site yet, but found 3 or 4 deer shot and not recovered in the bush not far from the road/field; also tracked a couple blood trails but never found who they belonged to.

I also think the climate makes perfect sense for the tick situation. It seems not that long ago I couldn’t access some areas due to the amount of snow all the way to May and into it. The past while, the snow is gone in March and some south facing hills even before that. I used to start shovelling in early October and wouldn’t stop till late April, with an occasional shovel in May. The latest snow I remember was on June 7 and that was 9 years ago. It was minus 3 outside. That, of course, was a freak event, but planting your tomatoes out, for example, before May long was never a good idea (I learned that the hard way a couple of times, lol). The past few years it seemed you are running late if you didn’t get them out way before that. It also feels like being lucky to have some snow on the ground on hunting days in November when before the hope was not having too much of it in order to be able to move around easily. The ice road over at Shftesburry ferry on Peace River has been opened once or twice in the past decade and only for a short period of time. The snow plows run through the town three of four times per winter and it seems some of it is just to burn through the budget in order to have it the next year. My 86-year old neighbour who ran them for the town for decades prior is amazed at the change that took (is taking) place. Back in the day, they wouldn’t stop throughout the winter and moving from one side of town to the next and start right back all over again was a regular thing he says. In other words, in the past while what had been an abnormal weather became the norm and the other way around. This year was the craziest yet with many farmers being done seeding before they would normally even start. We had an inch of snow so far on Sunday and, I think, this is better than last year. We also only had two or three frosts overnight before that.

And I am not talking about the climate change or some kind of cycle here, but personal observation and the effect it had on these creatures locally. And they are thriving and very much so. There is no other change that I can account for and I tried. Whether this change is temporary or permanent is beyond my observations capacity, lol, but for now it sure remains this way long enough to have a significant effect on moose population through out this province and elsewhere. It seems pretty clear to me, again from my personal observations and what I learned about it, from Ticdoc including (and greatly). That was a thanks to you, by the way, if you remember, because you were the one who suggested to me to contact Bill Are there other things that changed and have an effect? Probably. But this one seems to me to have the greatest effect that many don’t even realize is a thing.

Sure, there are more hunters. I found a tree stand this year where I have not seen a sign of human presence (except for mine) ever before (and that was likely my or my cousin’s fault because someone became aware of our consistently successful hunts in the area). Some areas I don’t even go to anymore before few weeks after season opens because there are so many people driving around, like caravans, one after another. It isn’t hard to get away from them even in those areas, but it just isn’t fun for me and there are other places.

Every Native guy I talked to drives elsewhere to exercise their rights. Not sure why, but this is great news for me, haha. Maybe they drive to the areas others have mentioned that are being hit hard by this kind of hunting Some had invited me to come with, the invitations I politely declined.

So yeah, I think this is a real thing. The forecasts I had made for myself and some that I mentioned here in various threads have so far been materializing as predicted, unfortunately.

Maybe Ticdoc can chime in with what it would take to put these creatures back into manageable numbers aside from burning the province or further reduction of moose population. Doubt it would only take one cold snowy winter, but maybe this is it and we can all hope for one? I understand that this may simply be a cycle and it happened before, but thinking the severity of the current one, if it is one, is likely a bit more concerning; especially given how widespread geographically the issue is. I read some studies suggesting that, of course, increasing hunting opportunities can be part of a solution because clearly reducing moose numbers would reduce the numbers of ticks that are completely out of control, but it seems that they are doing the job pretty well on their own and do not need an external intervention in that regard.

Another thing I have been thinking about is this steady heat like we had this summer and the summer before likely isn’t great for any ungulate and moose in particular. Like a week or two straight the summer before with temperature just under or above 40. Or this summer, when it switched from winter straight to summer in the end of March or beginning of April and stayed in the 30’s for weeks or months.

[lakerman]

Head biologist says close down during the rut it was in Rifle season, somehow it was the opposite and general tags, trucks full of bulls, atvs dragging them, then bunch of people started coming from Man. for some reason, trucks full of carcassess, DNR must of ran out of tags, didn't see one on that truck, 1 truck even tells us we can do what we want we have rights, I don't know what happenned to the population? Prairie hunts, we had lots of land to cover we know a guy that knows a guy your golden, weired that roads had trucks sitting around but know one in the fields, what's everyone waiting for? Eliminate the atv's, Sunday hunts, reduce tags and you'll see a spike in population, no one wants to hear the truth.

[Iceberg]

I'm not sure where all of you guys live but around me it seems moose populations haven't been this strong in awhile. In two weeks of hunting this year I must have heard over 300 grunts, called in 18-20 bulls, and saw moose everyday. I am on fringe land between big crown and farmland, where a wolf cull was very successful in recent years and it seems the moose population has come back very nicely. 10 years ago you would not have seen a moose track there. I find the trick is to get way off the roads where certain hunters won't venture to and you'll see plenty of moose.

[fishnguy]

Originally Posted by Iceberg

I'm not sure where all of you guys live but around me it seems moose populations haven't been this strong in awhile. In two weeks of hunting this year I must have heard over 300 grunts, called in 18-20 bulls, and saw moose everyday. I am on fringe land between big crown and farmland, where a wolf cull was very successful in recent years and it seems the moose population has come back very nicely. 10 years ago you would not have seen a moose track there. I find the trick is to get way off the roads where certain hunters won't venture to and you'll see plenty of moose.

I am seeing plenty of moose, don’t get me wrong. And I am usually away from roads and pressure. But I also see noticeably less of it in the past few years and see where this is going. It just all lines up together too nicely for it to be any kind of coincidence. And, like I said, not all areas seem to be affected (especially true for the areas where moose population density is pretty low, relatively speaking). Hopefully, it will remain so. My personal sample is also fairly small, but likely large enough to make some conclusions. Moreover, people have reported observing the same thing in other parts of the province. Just like me, people are reporting never seeing a tick in their lives (I have seen one when I was a kid and now caught one crawling on my shoulder in BC last year) before getting covered with them time after time in the past few years in the bush they hunted for many years. As well, the moose die off in various areas of Alberta in the past couple of years actually happened.


I have been trying to find some stats or even info on the indigenous harvest and man is it a difficult task, lol. The best I got was this, now a bit dated (published in 2006, but the data is from the mid to end 90s), study and it was done in Alberta. I am not personally very familiar with the WMUs discussed. It’s a short read and it does bring some interesting points. Predation is briefly touched on as well.

https://www.alcesjournal.org/index.p...d/375/459/2301

Someone commented that a bull can get a lot of cows pregnant and there is a bit of discussion on the subject in that paper. And I can agree with them that this is what I also observed myself hunting in 522, 523, and 520; I haven’t hunted moose or other big game in other WMUs enough to make any statements in regards to those areas. My experience in 520 is also fairly limited. While I didn’t spend that much time there last year but only some, the year before I did spend quite a bit and have seen a number of cows and evidence of more cows, with calves and alone. Never saw a bull. I also had a camera hanging there that took photos of several moose from November to February. There was not one single picture of clearly identifiable bull and no cow had any calves with it. The area has easily identifiable disproportionate ratio of cows to bulls and what they described in the article cited above is evidenced by my personal observation. In both, 522 and 523, the picture is completely different. Those areas that have “good” bull to cow ratios from my observation, are doing much better: both sexes of moose are found fairly easily given familiarity with the area, there are many more photos of moose (I haven’t ran cameras for a few years, but in-person observation confirms things aren’t too different, but aren’t as plentiful as they were a few years ago), and the absolute majority of cows have calves with them. The author(s) of the article comes to the following conclusion:

It does suggest that moose managers in Alberta should abandon their non-selective male-only management strategy for moose and opt for a selective harvest system that includes limited cow harvest and increased opportunity to harvest calves. Far northern WMUs, where moose populations are currently limited by predation, should continue to be managed for a male-only harvest, as prescribed by Van Ballenberge and Dart (1982).

I have no idea how valid that study is (I don’t see why not), but I found it pretty informative for myself and some personal observations from years past make a lot more sense now and are better explained.