Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Minnesota moose calf study

Minnesota wildlife researchers will keep trying to collar and study newborn moose calves in 2015 even though things haven’t gone well during the first two years of the effort.

Last May and June, researchers put GPS collars on 25 moose calves just hours after they were born. But 19 of the 25 calves either were abandoned by their mothers and had to be rescued, or their collars fell off or stopped working, leaving only six calves to be studied.

By August, all six had been eaten by predators, mostly wolves.

“It’s frustrating. But we need to persevere,” said Glenn DelGiudice, lead moose researcher for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/3685061-minnesota-moose-calf-study-works-through-setbacks

If six of the six calves were killed, that should be enough to tell even a government study something. Unless the cows died from the tick disease and the calves left to fend for themselves.. it is obvious the wolves are the problem to some degree.

Sounds like one of those instances where the public might actully pay them not to do the work.

What are their actual objectives?

Their objectives are to find out why Minnesota famous Moose herd is heading towards extinction. The Calf survival rate is awful and I think they're getting a better idea why.

If their actions are causing 73% of calves in the study to be abandoned or be in need of rescue, their study is causing far more harm than good and violates the tenets of valid field research.

Even if they get any data, the data is useless to study the problem they have identified because their study is impacting the study group to a significant and unnatural degree.

Whomever is the oversight board on this study needs to jerk the lead scientist in and chew their ass like breaking up new ground. That study is so FUBAR it's ridiculous and would fail miserably as a proposed science fair project. To have this supposedly done for professional reasons to identify a game management issue and be peer reviewed is ludicrous.

There are people with experience who can do this properly but Minnesota is going to figure it out for itself--eventually and if they don't kill all their moose first.

They already don't like where the data is taking them.

You don't expect this researcher to admit it's a bad idea and put himself out of business do you? He's probably the one that drew up the grant application.

Kinda reminds me of climate change researchers.

The problem is that the wolves have become such a huge political debate. Down in the Twin Cites where I live a person cant hardly listen to the radio without hearing anti-wolf hunting/trapping commercials every hour. The abundance of wolves are obviously affecting our deer and moose population (because deer /moose are the wolves prey, obviously). I hunt north of Duluth and its been sparse on deer to say the least. When we do see deer tracks and moose tracks they mostly have a wolf and up to the whole pack tracking or chasing them. My guess is that the adult moose carry so many ticks all summer on them and are then consistently stressed from the wolves. Throw in a warmer than normal summer season here and there with a worse winter or two and its going to be hard on them. Then add the calves that are killed off by wolves in high numbers and .......... My two pennies worth

They need to continue the study. How else will they prove that its global warming and not the wolves?

My first thought was why didn't they research why the cows were abandoning the calves. Surely it wouldn't be because the researchers were messing with them, would it? I'd say it's a 95% chance.

I honestly don't know but I would bet the cows were collared from the previous winter.
Cow stops moving on a point,or penninsula or an island--they figure it is birthing so they run in and grab the calf that was just recently born--the damn things will just lay there and since the cows are kinda used to wolves and bears doing the same thing they just move on.
Cow moose seem to have to learn how to be good mommas.
Now you take a 4 or 5 year old Cow that has been nursing that calf for a couple of days--you gonna have your hands full gettin anywhere near that calf.

And there ya go! Its always about getting money for a program and spending that money. The helicopter and fixed wing they had circling spent over two hours in back of my place a week ago. They were as close as 200 yards from my house. They were apparently chasing "my" young cow and her calf (her first one) around, trying to see collars or something (they don't have collars). Its thick back there and I suspect they were trying to chase her out into the open. I doubt it was a capture crew; its way too thick to land and they didn't try to get back there through my land, the only way. But, of course, they could have just asked me or my neighbor about the moose. We've both been keeping track of them; She is about 5 years old and has been hanging around here her entire life. Her mother died on my property two years ago. I've been thinking she is in greater danger from wolves this winter, as the whitetail were all killed off from last winter's weather, this area's second coldest winter in recorded history. Wolves will be starving this winter.

Anyway, it seems pretty stupid to hassle the moose pair, the day before one of the coldest nights of the year (-25F that night), new mother cow, and young calf, hiding successfuly from the area wolves....so far. But, the guys have money and gas to burn, so up go the aircraft; to "persevere." At least preliminary reports seem to suggest that predation won't be ignored in the final report. Its obvious this time, and the state really has no reason to downplay the predation any longer. More wolf and bear tags please. That would help a little bit.

Bill

If there were six functioning collars and all six were taken down by predators, that's 100% predation.....what's to perservere?

They know exactly why. Read the last paragraph of the article.

100% predator-caused mortality.

What's the question again?

The moose are obviously being subjected to too much human predation. Better ban them assault rifles!

By the way, MN is at the fringe of the moose's southern thermal range. With all the other stresses, if regional temps do go up even slightly their population/range will recede. It ain't just one thang!

Poor bastids.....

I'll bet that MN is considerably colder than southern Idaho and we have lots of moose here.

It's not the friggin weather.

Colder there than on the Kenai "moose range".