Maine Wildlife - Moose

Maine's moose population is way down according to many sources. The reasons stated have ranged from winter tick infestations to poor management of the hunting season to climate change. There are other sources that say the Maine moose population is doing well and is close to the recent long term average.
Based on photo experience and opportunity, does anyone that photographs Maine moose see a change in their population over the last few years??

Paul

My answer doesn't pertain to Maine's moose population but the Oregon population is infested with a parasite which severely limits life expectancy.

I have been photographing Maine moose for over 35 years (I now live in Northern Maine) and years ago (pre-year 2005) it was like shooting fish in a barrel. I have witnessed times where I have seen over 20 moose in a single pond in a day. Now, you're lucky to see one, and that's on a good day! Winter Tick, climate change, and poor wildlife management (in that order) are the culprits. The Winter Tick is killing the population at an epidemic level! Climate change heavily contributes to the tick's success, by not killing them off properly in the early Spring by them falling off in the leaf litter to mate again instead of falling off into the snow and dying. Because of the millions of dollars generated by the Maine Moose Lottery permit system, F&W refuses to stop the hunt for a couple of years to help rebuild the herd. Last year Maine F&W collared 60 Moose, of which 35 died due to Winter Tick infestation! So more than half perished! New Hampshire, suffering a similar situation, at least realize the dire straits and are acknowledging the problem an are studying possible solutions, and have some good, thorough reports available to the general public. I hope this situation is just cyclical, and things will turn around in 10 years or so, but I'm skeptical at best.

Mark Picard wrote: The Winter Tick is killing the population at an epidemic level! Climate change heavily contributes to the tick's success, by not killing them off properly in the early Spring by them falling off in the leaf litter to mate again instead of falling off into the snow and dying. Last year Maine F&W collared 60 Moose, of which 35 died due to Winter Tick infestation! So more than half perished!

Amazing numbers!!! Pretty sad that everything is combining to the detriment of the moose.

Joe

The same thing is happening to the moose population in northern Minnesota. There is no consensus as to why moose are declining here other than a combination of the same issues already mentioned. Minnesota did stop the moose hunt last year, but I couldn't believe they didn't do it sooner. The Minnesota DNR was collaring moose calves but found that a good percentage of the collared calves were being abandoned by their mothers. The Governor finally put a stop to it or the DNR would have kept right on going.

http://www.pressherald.com/2014/06/14/w ... oose-herd/

Excerpted from above link:

[font=Lusitana, serif]……..John Lanier, a forester and hunter who lives in Columbia, New Hampshire, 20 minutes from the Canadian border, said moose have all but vanished there.[/font]

[font=Lusitana, serif]“The moose population has gone down, there is no doubt about it,” Lanier said. “I was looking at one the other day that was shot because it was about to die. It had tens of thousands of ticks on it. It didn’t bleed. The ticks had taken all its blood.”[/font]
[font=Lusitana, serif]Kristine Rines, who has been New Hampshire’s moose biologist for the past 20 years, said the situation there is dire.[/font]
[font=Lusitana, serif]“If we continue to have shorter winters, this increase in parasitism will result in increased mortality,” she said. “It could have some fairly significant impact on our ability to maintain moose on the landscape.”[/font]