Here's a good story / special from WCCO on how the MN moose is disappearing from NE MN. the main culpret they are saying is the heat, and that anything over 60 degrees the moose struggle and sircum to the heat.
http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_109223634.htmlProject Energy: The Moose Mystery
Bill Hudson - Reporting
(WCCO) With a toot of his horn, Orvis Lunke mimics a moose's bellow. He's trying his best to call one into view but on Minnesota's Gunflint Trail, deep into the Superior National Forest, he's having little luck. Orvis trudges across a freshly logged plot of land and points to some birch browse.
"They've been way up here, nipping the tops off," said Lunke.
Despite the signs of recent moose activity in the area, actual sightings of the giant woodland animals are becoming rare. In years past, the retired Minnesota Department of Natural Resources forester has seen more than his share of moose. The Gunflint Trail, a long popular route that cuts a swath through the state's most rugged wilderness, has long been a haven for moose.
"Not this year," Orvis said, "Not a lot of moose in this area by the way it looks."
His observation is alarming because it reflects what's becoming a statewide trend: Minnesota's moose population is in serious decline. Aerial surveys by the DNR have been counting moose for over 40 years. In 2006, that survey estimated the moose population in the northeastern part of the state at 8,400. The same area surveyed this winter counted nearly 2,000 fewer moose. That's a drop of 23 percent. Mark Lenarz is the DNR's lead moose researcher. While understandably concerned over the numbers, Lenarz is also confused. He said what's most baffling is that "there's any single cause for this mortality we're seeing in a number of different places."
For instance, the state's northwestern region was also once a haven for moose and had somewhere near 4,000 animals in the 1980s. This year's aerial survey found just 84. Lenarz said tissue samples from some of the moose carcasses are being tested to determine cause of death, but are often times inconclusive. Referring to the necropsies performed at the University of Minnesota, Lenarz said, "they found the approximate cause of death was parasites or malnutrition ? moose are starving to death or suffering the side effects from the parasites."
Certainly, the state's growing timberwolf population accounts for some of the moose mortality but nowhere near the number that's being seen. Moose are also plagued by such parasites as brainworm, liver flukes and winter ticks, but they too aren't found in all the moose carcasses being tested.
"Perhaps it's some other parasite or disease we haven't identified yet," said Lenarz.
However, what's really raising eyebrows among wildlife biologists is an apparent correlation between the rapid moose decline and northern Minnesota's warming climate. Weather data shows that the region's summer temperatures have increased along with higher humidity, dew points and overnight lows. That is a concern because moose are a "cold climate" animal, surviving best in Canada, Alaska and Northern Scandinavia.
Lenarz said the evidence seems to suggest that global warming may be a contributing factor in the moose's decline. When winter temperatures rise above 23 degrees Fahrenheit, moose breathe faster. In the summer when it gets above 67 degrees, they begin panting like a dog and will only find relief from the heat by spending most of their day in swamps, rivers and lakes.
He compares it to a human wearing a snowmobile suit all summer long. Lenarz said in hot weather, moose tend to feed less and put on less fat that is vital for their winter survival.
"Basically, they don't do well in hot conditions," he adds.
A higher respiration rate and less time feeding puts an added stress on the animals that can make them more prone to parasites and disease. The DNR is working with the 1854 Treaty Authority, its Native American counterpart, to conduct more research into moose mortality. In a quest to find a culprit, biologist Andy Edwards continues to track what remains of the original 116 radio-collared moose. Already, two-thirds of the collared moose in the study have died.
"When a pilot is up doing his weekly tests over the area hears a difference in the beeping signal, we'll know that that animal is likely dead," said Edwards.
That's when crews locate the carcass on the ground and send tissue samples to the U of M lab. Over the past five years, mortality among radio collared moose averaged about 22 percent per year. Last year, that soared to 34 percent. On top of that the survival rate of moose calves is dropping to an all time low. In a normal year, 50 to 60 calves in 100 will survive the first year. The most recent data show a survival rate of just 29. In a recent flight over the remote Superior National Forest near Isabella, Edwards spotted two moose from the WCCO Sky 4 helicopter. The first was so tick-infested most of its hair was rubbed off. The other was a fresh moose carcass that becomes more data for him and more food for hungry wolves. However, it's not just data that shows the decline. Each spring Lunke, the moose caller, scours the woods, looking for those huge antlers that all bull moose shed before growing them new ones.
"Now they're just harder to find , because there's just fewer of them," said Lunke.
In the heyday of Northern Minnesota's moose population, it was nothing for Lunke to find 80 of these sheds, in a single spring in the woods. Last year he found only 15. It's troubling news along the main streets and backwoods taverns stretching from Ely to Grand Marais. Moose have always been a huge attraction for summer tourists.
Larry Schanno is the owner of Our Place on Highway One in Finland.
"There are more people that come in here and asking me where they can see a moose than where to fish," said Schanno.
He said the locals are referring to the mystery as "drop dead disease."
"Research tells you what, they don't know, they can't tell you," said Schanno.
That's why more research into climate change and mortality will be needed, if biologists are to solve this, "moose mystery."
(? MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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Topic: The MN Moose... Where are they going? (Read 2378 times)
