Hunters aiding moose hunt researchers

[Lee Borgersen]

Hunters aiding moose hunt researchers
 
 
A. MasloskiHunters are helping researchers gather blood and tissue samples from area moose.
 
Minnesota moose hunters are helping wildlife researchers to better understand what’s plaguing the state’s largest mammal.

Hunters, who hit the forests of northeastern Minnesota for their once-in-a-lifetime moose hunt this month, are providing critically needed tissue and blood samples that are allowing veterinarians from the Department of Natural Resources to explore why the state’s moose herd is declining.

So far, according to Erica Butler, a DNR veterinarian, hunter cooperation has been remarkable, with 90 percent of hunters providing the samples requested by researchers. That’s a marked difference, said Butler, from the experience in other states, where lack of hunter cooperation has hampered similar research efforts.

“All the other states are just amazed at the cooperation we get from hunters,” said Butler. “And it’s pretty thorough what we’re asking them to do and it wouldn’t be possible without them.”

The samples from hunters provide a good control sample for researchers, who otherwise obtain samples from moose that have died from other causes and may not represent a good sampling of the health of the general moose population.

Findings

While researchers remain a long ways from a definitive explanation for the baffling decline in moose numbers in northern Minnesota, it is becoming increasingly clear that more than one factor is likely at work. Using brain, blood and liver samples, researchers have been focusing on brainworm and liver flukes, as well as potential diseases, like West Nile virus and Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

According to Butler, brainworms are present in a relatively small percentage of the moose brains they’ve obtained from hunters, but liver damage from flukes appears more widespread. Both the brainworm and liver flukes are carried by whitetail deer, and are passed on to moose through land snails, which serve as an intermediate host.

Researchers are also asking for blood samples this year, which they can use to determine the liver function of harvested moose as well as screen for other parasites.

The decline in moose numbers in northern Minnesota has, so far, stumped researchers, who have noted that the moose herd in neighboring North Dakota is expanding in both numbers and range.

Butler, who used to work in North Dakota moose country, said fewer land snails in the prairie region could be one reason for the difference.

Still, Butler says, “We think it’s more than brainworm and liver flukes. We may be dealing with something else.”

More research funding

Researchers may learn more if an expanded radio-collaring effort is funded. That study has been recommended for $600,000 in funding by the Legislative and Citizens Committee on Minnesota Resources, or LCCMR. That should allow researchers to radio-collar approximately 600 moose, beginning in 2012.

According to Butler, the radio collars will allow researchers to determine quickly if a collared moose has died and that will give them the opportunity to collect fresh samples, to compare with the control samples provided by hunters.




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