Just checking to see how each Province is fairing with respect to a healthy huntable moose population. Are you hearing any concerns about "climate change"?
bigwhoop;
Good evening to you sir, I hope this finds you well at the tail end of this warm Sunday.
Our moose populations here in BC have been falling for a number of years now, though in the main it would appear that excessive predation from wolves is the primary reason.
Despite the fact that we've got very liberal wolf seasons in the entire province, the evidence indicates that the wolves have learned to use the ever expanding network of logging roads to become more efficient at killing moose - as well as the endangered mountain caribou herd that run into Idaho too.
There are a lot of concerns about climate change here though it's difficult to articulate how much that ties into the failing moose population.
Surely it's been decades and maybe more than that since some of the coastal salmon streams have been this low for instance - no snow pack last winter. That's caused the unprecedented step of shutting down fishing on many coastal and Vancouver Island streams and rivers as well as some into the interior here too.
Changing snow pack conditions, overall drier conditions and less browse might or might not be caused by climate change - that we can debate.
What we can't debate is the negative impact those conditions have had on our moose populations.
Hopefully that made some sense and was useful information for you or some other visiting hunters. All the best to you for the remainder of the summer and good luck on your hunts this fall.
Dwayne
Our moose population has been decimated by unregulated native and Metis hunters exercising their "ancestoral right". It's disgusting what has happened in the past ten years.....pretty much all road accessible moose areas are now closed to licensed hunters. I've been moose hunting in Manitoba for 40 years and I could never have imagined some of our primo moose habitat areas to ever become mooseless. It makes me sick!!!!!!!!
I am SO PISSED OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here in Ontario the number of adult tags have been severely reduced over the past couple of years. Unsure of what the cause may be. In the WMU where our party hunts the changes implemented would have prevented us from hunting at all had we not managed to draw an adult tag.
With the herds in decline it was obvious something had to be done. Time will tell whether managing of the hunters will be sufficient to correct the decline.
Jim
Our moose in the north aren't doing so great, but there are enough for a open bull season.
In the south I'm convinced that SERM is trying to kill every moose out there by issuing too many tags.
In BC it would seem the moose pops are way down and not recovering, the conditions for recovery just aren't there.
Some want to put most if not all the blame on the indians, yet there is still an any bull season in parts of the province, and an immature bull season in most of it, your lucky if you see an immy.
Wolves, resident hunters (20,000 new hunters over the last 5 years), native hunting, and continued road access to moose area's, are all responsible for the poor moose pops.
Where the access is limited the moose seem to be doing alot better.
Thanks fellas for your comments.
Most game pops. are down here in BC, aboriginal slaughter, apex predators and too much easy access seem the overall issues.
Our COs are grossly underfunded and staffed and the government recently gave a substantial increase in quota to the commercial sector.....so, the situation looks rather bleak, at present.
Well at least ya didn't say man made globull warming.
At least its nature doing its own thing, and hence holds very little of the responsibility.
Man is generally the one that can't figure out how to manage what nature provides... and you end up with feast or famine, but never a happy middle.
up here in northern Alberta the winter slaughter on the roads has started , most of the vehicle kills i see are calves , in 120 kms at least ten that i saw last winter ,2 already this year. thats only one hwy. all moose tags are draw basis.
norm
I dont know about the moose in Canada but I am starting to believe a lot of the decline in Wisconsins deer numbers are from wood ticks. I have seen pictures of fawns with so many ticks on them it covered their ears and swelled their eyes completely shut to the point there is no way for them to see. They can't live long if thats the case.
Most game pops. are down here in BC, aboriginal slaughter, apex predators and too much easy access seem the overall issues.
Our COs are grossly underfunded and staffed and the government recently gave a substantial increase in quota to the commercial sector.....so, the situation looks rather bleak, at present.
And you forgot to mention the annual train slaughter that happens every winter! More moose are killed by trains each year than by hunters.
Canada is a pretty big place, and the moose population varies with location. In my home province of Saskatchewan, moose have been doing extremely well in the forest fringe and parkland areas of private farm land around Saskatoon and South Central regions. That's because there is enough habitat, zero predators, and hunting pressure is regulated and limited because it is almost all private land. In the crown land "commercial forest" it is a different story. Years of unregulated hunting by treaty indians, a culture of poaching by locals, no monitoring and no appropriate licence limits for "sport " hunters and way too many roads and trails accessible by ATVs and snowmobiles has decimated moose populations. Moose are in big trouble in the southern forest fringe. And in the far north, sparse populations , poor productivity, and unrelenting pressure from locals has decimated the moose over wide areas. In pockets where snowmobiles can't or won;t go, moose are doing well.
I hunted moose in the farming land near my home (Saskatoon region) this year with a draw licence for cows. I saw 5- 7 moose each morning for 5 days, and shot a cow and guided a 16 yr old did to his first without much effort or trouble. In the North it would take several seasons to find that many moose.
And increasing accidents including one where an RCMP was killed caused SGI and the government to put pressure on SERM to increase Grassland limits and reduce moose numbers way beyond what the population can reproduce.
I'll say it again, and again, and again. There are too many people on this planet. If you want to maintain healthy populations of any wild plant or animal we need to control and reduce the human population. Years ago I made a personal decision to not produce children based on this. Unfortunately a lot of educated people have taken this route and the idiots of the world have done the opposite. The gene pool is getting pretty weak.