Posted on 02/25/2015 7:00:30 PM PST by TurboZamboni
DULUTH, Minn. -- Minnesota wildlife researchers will keep trying to collar and study newborn moose calves in 2015 even though things haven't gone well during the first two years of the effort.
Last May and June, researchers put GPS collars on 25 calves just hours after they were born. But 19 of them 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, those six had been eaten by predators, mostly wolves.
"It's frustrating. But we need to persevere," said Glenn DelGiudice, lead moose researcher for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Moose experts say more information is needed on how many calves are dying -- and why-- to accompany research on adult moose as northeastern Minnesota's moose population dwindles.
The results of an aerial survey in January showed lower overall moose numbers, with a drop of more than 60 percent since 2006. Researchers say there appear to be problems with both adult and calf moose. Disease, parasites, climate, habitat and predators are factors, although specific causes of the decline still aren't clear.
The disappointing 2014 calf study was even less successful than 2013: Forty-nine calves were collared and 15 either lost their collars or were abandoned. Many of the abandoned calves perished.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
The arrogant stupidity of “wildlife researchers” and state fish and game departments never ceases to amaze me. My wife and I deal with them every year. Maybe 25% of them get it and the rest are authoritarian morons.
They keep making the same mistakes repeatedly and NEVER learn from them. BUT, they are so much SMARTER than the general public that we had better not interfere or you can bet they’ll make trouble for us AND kill the affected wildlife as well.
Kinda like cops killing dogs... The government no longer serves the greater good.
LOL. Thanks, I needed that.
“We had to destroy the town to save it.”
I agree with your sentiments—leave the calves alone. They are suddenly foreign to their mothers. Surely we can find a better way to study animals than with this sort of intrusion.
Obviously not a moose themselves. Real late-term moose abortionist?
If Moose where supposed to be fitted with GPS trackers they would come from the factory already fitted.
Nature always operates correctly when Humans KTFO of things they don’t understand.
It wasn’t the KT event that killed all the Dinosaurs.....it was wildlife researchers with GPS tracking collars.
DNR and Fed Researchers are nothing more than educated idiots. Do we need to spend millions on research all over this country to find that wolves are killing our elk, moose, deer and cattle? Ask any hunter and he can easily give you an answer in seconds and for “free”. Yes, other predators such as bears and Mountain Lions do kill their share but nothing like what wolves do. Such losses did not occur prior to introducing wolves to the equation.
What is REALLY needed is a bounty on wolves, PERIOD. Ask any rancher, farmer or hunter.
Some 18,000 elk of Montana’s Northern Yellowstone herd have been slaughtered since the introduction of the Canadian grey wolf to the area 20 years ago...leaving two or three thousand yet to be finished off.
Moose? There are almost none left. Ditto bighorn sheep and mountain goats.
These past couple decades have seen the Leftist radicalization of wildlife management, with the predictable results of widespread destruction.
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