Moose mortality stats

[Darksith]

how do you come to the conclusion its bears having a feast? coming in with the least amount of collared moose kills, cow and calf? Your opinion reads like someone wishing to solve the declining moose population by selling grizzly bear and black bear hunts, while continuing to sell big bull moose hunts. Are you a guide outfitter by any chance?
(there were a handful of areas studied with bulls coming in well under the target bull/cow ratio too)

So far the study on calves shows by far the biggest mortality in calves was, again caused by wolves. Like cows, double, and triple, quadruple and ten fold the rates of any other cause of mortality and other predators.
I'm sure being chased around by multiple packs of wolves all winter long will add to the malnutrition as well.

During this study wolves killed collared cow moose

2.6x more than "unlicensed hunting"
7x more than bears
10x more than cougars
4.7x more than starvation

Also 2 of the "health related" collared cow moose deaths were actually from failed predation, you could probably can add those 2 under wolves kills too if you are a betting man.

Of the 21 collared calf mortalities, wolves were responsible for:

9x more than bear
9x more than cougar
2.3x more than starvation

Keep doing these studies, and they will, they are.... and they will again come out with the same conclusions, wolves killing the most moose and likely chasing them around in circles all year off the prime feeding sites.

None of these moose are new born calfs, that is when the bears will be extremely effective killers of moose. They will prey on the calves before the calves get old enough to be collared. The low calf survival rates come collaring time shows this. It would be very hard to count new born calf mortalities (calfs 1 month old or less) because you couldn't track those cows and determine when and how they lost their calf.

What I see is what happened with the elk around Yellowstone. Population ages because the wolves prey on the young, then when the old population dies, the entire thing falls off a cliff and the population crashes. Its exactly what happened to the Yellowstone elk...its happening right now on the Bonaparte Plateau. I have hunted there for almost 20 years now, had the moose draw last year and about every 4 years on average between myself and friends. Never have I ever seen so few moose as this year.

[Sirloin]

I'm sure bears are effective at gobbling up calves, as they always have been and i'm all for thinning out the predator populations, including bears. But what changed in the province?
There was no sudden boom in the bear population. The boom in wolf populations definitely coincides with the decline of moose, along with every study showing them to be the most effective killers of moose. Have they tipped the scales?

[WhiteTailAB]

Wow looks like those 2 legged wolves could compete with the 4 legged wolves.

[325]

Studies in Alaska have shown that ~90% of moose calves can be killed by bears

[ElectricDyck]

On a side note: One of the positive/negatives with finding out what percentage of un licensed harvest takes place is now the ministry could use that number for setting regulations for the licenced hunter. Depending on what they were guessing Indians were doing before it could increase or decrease the allowable harvest for licenced hunters.

I heard one comment that if the ministry really knew Indian harvest there would be no resident hunting..

[Bugle M In]

None of these moose are new born calfs, that is when the bears will be extremely effective killers of moose. They will prey on the calves before the calves get old enough to be collared. The low calf survival rates come collaring time shows this. It would be very hard to count new born calf mortalities (calfs 1 month old or less) because you couldn't track those cows and determine when and how they lost their calf.

What I see is what happened with the elk around Yellowstone. Population ages because the wolves prey on the young, then when the old population dies, the entire thing falls off a cliff and the population crashes. Its exactly what happened to the Yellowstone elk...its happening right now on the Bonaparte Plateau. I have hunted there for almost 20 years now, had the moose draw last year and about every 4 years on average between myself and friends. Never have I ever seen so few moose as this year.

hmmmmm….

That bit about what happened in Yellowstone just got me thinking about another one of our specie
in the EK that is in the tanks.
Can't remember the last time I saw calf either??
And I recall a few times local workers talking about cows having calves and than suddenly calf is gone (only 4 to 6 month olds)

I always think of bear during birthing time etc for declines in calves.
But hadn't considered that calves are the "main target" by wolves.
Now I can see how things "suddenly collapse" in a short time.
Mature are being hunted by 2 legged or just getting old and dying.
Meanwhile the "replacements" are being picked off by 4 legged.

Now, why do I think us residents are going to be the ones paying the price?
Rather than dealing with the "culprits" causing the issues.
Definitely at a low point in our Game Management History if you ask me.

[338win mag]

On a side note: One of the positive/negatives with finding out what percentage of un licensed harvest takes place is now the ministry could use that number for setting regulations for the licenced hunter. Depending on what they were guessing Indians were doing before it could increase or decrease the allowable harvest for licenced hunters.

I heard one comment that if the ministry really knew Indian harvest there would be no resident hunting..

Someone's brilliant idea is to make FN co-managers of wildlife in this province, and if you look at region 5 you will see zero leh for moose. We can expect the same bs over the entire province, I dont hold out too much hope FN will allow resident hunters any opportunity so long as numbers stay low. You can be assured they will make sure the numbers stay low so there isn't any opportunity.

[Bigdoggdon]

So why doesn't the Gov't do a study. Go out in the winter and collar pregnant cows. Check in on those cows at 30 day intervals from birthing time to when the calf should be 1yr old. See how many we lost and when. probably see big spikes in mortality from bears around birthing time and wolves during the winter. Gov't probably doesn't want to find that out though.

[bearvalley]

So why doesn't the Gov't do a study. Go out in the winter and collar pregnant cows. Check in on those cows at 30 day intervals from birthing time to when the calf should be 1yr old. See how many we lost and when. probably see big spikes in mortality from bears around birthing time and wolves during the winter. Gov't probably doesn't want to find that out though.

The study being discussed in this thread shows the number of pregnant cows, calves per 100 cows at birth, calves mid June, calves mid winter, calves March 31st and calves left at age 1.
Its a downward spiral the whole way.

[Piperdown]

Just got back from the cabin last week saw more bears than i could count. We have a pregnant cow moose on the property just about ready to calve. So we went out for a walk to take pictures of some deer rubs on the property and the cow moose was on the other side of the drainage and ran in the bush when we arrived. I let out 1 low cow call took the picture of the deer rub and turned around to see a black bear come up behind us in less then 20 seconds coming to the cow call. Well he ate a 300 grain bullet out of the 45/70 at 12 fricking paces I think maybe we just saved a calf moose