Dayton/no collaring moose

[Lee Borgersen]

Dayton orders Minnesota DNR to stop radio-collaring moose

 Apr 28, 2015
 
 
Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton has ordered the state Department of Natural Resources to stop radio-collaring moose “immediately, and indefinitely.”

 
DNR researchers have been collaring moose as part of efforts to learn why the state's moose population has been dropping significantly in recent years.

  ............
“I respect that DNR researchers are trying to understand why our moose population is declining,” Dayton said in a news release Tuesday. “However, their methods of collaring are causing too many of the moose deaths they seek to prevent. Thus, I will not authorize those collaring practices to continue in Minnesota.”

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.

The disappointing 2014 calf study was even less successful than 2013, when 49 calves were collared and 15 either lost their collars or were abandoned by their mothers. Many of the 2013 abandoned calves perished.

Moose experts say more information is needed on how many calves are dying, and how they are dying, to accompany ongoing research on adult moose as Northeastern Minnesota's moose population continues to dwindle.

Last summer some of the abandoned calves were rescued and given to the Minnesota Zoo. Both years saw public complaints that the research wasn't worth the loss of calves.

Glenn DelGiudice, lead moose researcher for the Minnesota DNR, said earlier this year that he had planned to capture 50 calves each in 2015 and 2016 to get a larger sample size to determine what is naturally killing the young moose.


A moose with a radio collar placed by researchers seeking to find out why Minnesota's moose population is declining. (2013 file | Minnesota DNR  )


[attachment deleted by admin]

[glenn57]

that's to bad. not that I disagree with the gov but if this collaring is actually making cows abandon there calves and cows dieing do to the collaring it should stop. my guess these cows get pretty rilied up when trapped and collared.

[DDSBYDAY]

  You can't blame global warming if you can actually track the calves to the wolf kill.   Get those collars off and then you can get back to the global warming killing our moose narrative.