MN moose mortality ... wolves ...

[bigwoodsmn]

Check out the two pie charts.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/moose/index.html

[glow=red]"shocking"[/glow] right?

• I'm not "anti-wolf" but I am against unmanaged predator populations and I am against left-wing politics dictating wolf management.
• The lag in managing the population has cost us our once-in-a-lifetime moose hunt.
• Our moose population has been devastated.

[headgear]

It paints a pretty clear photo doesn't it. We have had a steady 3K wolf population for 20+ years now, YA RIGHT!

[headgear]

Looking into this a bit more, its easy to see what happened. They claim the moose population has gone down 50% since 2010. So if you look at the big picture our northern MN deer population started to crash in 08 and 09. Before that we had record high harvests and lots of deer to support growing wolf population. Once the deer numbers crashed the wolves turned a lot more attention to the moose. Recently the DNR is claiming the wolf population is on the decline, it makes sense deer and moose numbers are low.

[Dhurtubise]

Well... That's what wolves do.

Just north of MN, we have a ton of wolves. Where there are pockets of whitetails, they are deer specialists. Where moose are relatively abundant, the wolves specialize on that prey source. In either case, they don't eat much else.

Everytime I walk into the woods to hunt whitetails, I know i'll see several wolf prints. For your wolf population to be abundant, you have to have a relatively healthy moose and deer population, otherwise, wolf mortality due to starvation balances things out.

Historically, overhunting has been the main cause for both moose and deer population depletion.

------------

support of what headgear wrote while I was typing my response.

[headgear]

Dhurtubise we are use to hunting with wolves here, very much the norm. Just more issues with the DNR either not sharing info or to be honest learning on the job. I will give them the benefit of the doubt because we have had an unprecedented deer and wolf boom followed shortly by exactly what you mentioned, overhunting (too many tags for too long). The poor moose are just part of the collateral damage until nature takes its course.

[bigwoodsmn]

Our moose population is in NE Minn. Many are in the BWCAW. Have the deer and moose been overhunted there?

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[Dhurtubise]

The moose population in the boundary waters will pretty much always be healthy. No matter what, it will get a steady infusion (immigration) from Canada as moose are not turned around at customs.

[ Post made via iPhone ]

[dan]

I remember seeing a report stating that moose numbers were dropping significantly in Northern MN and the state had no clue as to why... I said " it don't take a rocket scientist"
Anybody that hunts up there can tell you the moose are being devastated by wolves. Wisconsin thinks they have a wolf problem... Its insane how many wolves are in the Superior national forest.

[bigwoodsmn]

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article ... id=1009814

This is an article highlighting the thought life of those involved, before the study. Many here were (are still) thinking it's definitely "climate change" killing the moose. How PC. I guess as long as we city folks recycle, drive hybrid cars, and put particulate filters on our diesel trucks the moose will live.

I don't know if the yin/yang predation/starvation cycle will fix NE Minn. I'm not anti-wolf. I'm anti-people-kidding-themselves about wolves.

I buck hunt Ontario and MN every year. Where I hunt MN many miles WNW of Superior Nat'l I can literally hit a golf ball to Ontario. I'm in that area noted in the article that used to have moose but now doesn't have moose. We saw a track once 10 years ago. Maybe there are a few around. It looks hopeless though.

Maybe NE Minn has a chance.

[ Post made via Android ]

[headgear]

Our moose population is in NE Minn. Many are in the BWCAW. Have the deer and moose been overhunted there?

[ Post made via Android ]

No bigwoods they have not, but I think in the surrounding area when the deer numbers crash the wolves can and will travel to hunt what they can. I suspect many of the wolves moved into the nearby BWCA to hunt what moose they could. BWCA is what maybe 20-25 miles wide, pretty easy for a pack to travel that in a day or two.

[bigwoodsmn]

I hear you guys.

The net of it is: I wish we had a growing moose population in MN instead of a tanking population. I wish people didn't think moose hunters and climate change killed the Minnesota Moose.

I'm glad the results are published now. It's odd though. In one statement we heard moose hunters (tribal and non-tribal combined) have next-to-no-impact on the population. In the next statement ... they closed the non-tribal moose hunt.

Are they concerned taking even <100 animals is too risky? If that's the case the situation is more dire than they are letting on. Or is the shutdown symbolic?

My crew has 5 MN wolf tags but unfortunately we're nowhere near the SNF/BWCAW and we won't focus on wolves. We're hoping for racks for the wall and freezers of venison.


EDIT: By the way Dhurtubise -- That's a HOG Musky!

[dan]

EDIT: By the way Dhurtubise -- That's a HOG Musky!

Actually, thats a giant northern pike.

There is a lot of moose sign where I bear hunt in Superior national forest, but also a ton of wolf sign. The wolves up there are every where, I even have them hitting my bear baits back in wet swamps where you normally don't see them. Moose calfs don't stand a chance in that population.

[Mike]

I was up in tofte this winter and the dnr was based where we went skijoring that day with the moose collars, tranking them from helicopters and putting collars on, kinda cool. Copter buzzed us and we though we might see one but no luck... anyway so much for the parasite theory among others.




OT just read tofte was where to 510lb world record buck was shot

[dan]

I was up in tofte this winter and the dnr was based where we went skijoring that day with the moose collars, tranking them from helicopters and putting collars on, kinda cool. Copter buzzed us and we though we might see one but no luck... anyway so much for the parasite theory among others.




OT just read tofte was where to 510lb world record buck was shot

I hunt bear up in Tofte, there are some hog bucks. But the racks don't seem to always match. Saw a big old buck a couple years ago up there and I bet it only scored about 120/130

[bigwoodsmn]

Edit ... that is a giant pike!! I'm looking for a buck half of that 510. I actually stumbled on the Hunting Beast site searching Google for deer hunting in Tofte, the Gunflint, Superior National, etc... tracker Noble Carlson etc...