Dhurtubise wrote:One thing to keep in mind that hasn't been stated yet in this thread, is that where deer populations bloom, we usually see moose populations decline.
Although I don't have a direct sourced to quot here, it's generally said in conversation that deer Carry brain worm disease without it affecting them. But because they browse where Moose browse, Moose will get the disease and it kills them.
Where there are deer in North Western Ontario, it is in historical moose strongholds. Most of those areas are all pretty much deprived of Moose today. This may be what is going on in a lot of your areas where you are describing moose population declines.
The wolves will help for sure (a pack will take one down every 7 -10 days if they specialize on that prey item). But if climate change allows deer to move in, they will overtake the moose populations as well. If the DNR is issuing more tags than the population can withstand is is just one more factor.
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SRD has also made this connection in Alberta, however the way they explain it the more deer you have the more wolves you have, thus the moose don't do well. I'd be inclined to believe this is true, on my river hunts I get far enough back into the boreal that there are no deer, there does seem to be both better moose populations in these areas as well as far less wolf sign. At one point the moose, elk, and wolves could keep a good balance. On years with little snow, or where the snow developes a good crust the wolves do well, years where there is deep snow with little crust they decline and the moose do better. I was told by a fish cop in Alaska that the major factor up there is still the snow crust, it determines how the moose will over winter. With Whitetails now ever more prominent in the mix this doesn't happen any more, wolves can effectively take down deer even in unfavorable snow conditions and will do well in winters which would have typically seen a decline in the wolf population they still come through well. As well the whitetail exist in far greater densities than moose and can support wolf populations that are far greater than the original eco-system ever could support, more bad news for the moose.
I understand the sentiment that we should just let nature run its course but IMO at this point we've messed with nature to the point that this just doesn't work anymore, we need to manage for sustainability and that includes the wolves. As well I think that in MN they aren't contending with un regulated hunting like we do in Canada. In Canada overhunting is deffinatly a problem because a huge portion of the moose killed every year are never tagged, and our current system has no way of regulating first nations hunting. In MN, at least as far as the Moose hunt goes, I suspect that it is far more tightly managed, if your cutting tags back and the moose numbers are still falling then there are only so many things to look at.
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