Moose!!
Contributors to this thread:Minnesota
From: Grubby
01-Dec-19
I pulled a camera yesterday after about a 3 month soak. I had 2 moose, 1 bear, several wolves and zero deer. Nice to see the moose though.
From: Inshart
01-Dec-19
Wow, nice. What part of MN was that from?
From: Mnhunter1980
01-Dec-19
Very cool! I’m not in the loop on what’s going on with moose here lately. I applied for 12 years before it was closed down, I followed it more when I use to get the outdoor news . It’s a sad deal, I hope the Dnr isn’t giving up on the moose population as they are a fascinating animal to me. Northern mn is a special place
From: Grubby
01-Dec-19
Lake of the woods county
From: rodb
03-Dec-19
There isn't a whole lot of good news when it comes to the moose. The DNR nor the state is spending much money on moose research these days. And there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of support for them from anybody else either. The people of the state are more concerned about the wolves than the moose.
From: Grubby
04-Dec-19
I feel like there might be a connection rod
I know the moose have a lot of obstacles but wolves are definitely the largest of them
From: 12yards
04-Dec-19
I think DNR's hands are kind of tied on moose management. They know that wolves are a major source of mortality. But they can't manage wolves,...., yet. Hopefully that will change. But then will the public allow enough wolf harvest to make a difference?? Their management now is just keeping deer numbers down to prevent brainworm. But deer hunters don't like that either. And if it is all about milder winters and mortality due to disease and ticks, not much DNR can do about that. We need global cooling and some kick ass winters. Maybe increased clear cutting on moose range would help too. They like the early succession timber areas.
From: Grubby
04-Dec-19
I have seen some moose habitat improvement projects in this area..... which I find hilarious.
From: rodb
04-Dec-19
While the DNR can't do anything about the wolves they need to make the public aware that one of the main reasons we don't have moose is because the wolves are eating 75% of the new born calves. Bears are another predator and they could increase bear permits but for some reason they don't want to do that either.
From: 12yards
05-Dec-19
rodb, I think it's very hard to model bear populations.
From: rodb
06-Dec-19
Really! There are a lot of bears from Grand Rapids to Bigfork running around with ear tags and collars. We had a least 4 different tagged/collared bears on cameras last spring. There is no need for a high bear population.
From: 12yards
06-Dec-19
No disrespect implied, but how does your experience suggest that bear populations are easy to model? I remember back in the 90s they thought there were bazillions of bears in the state so they liberalized seasons. Turned out they significantly overharvested bears then and they had to back way off on seasons for awhile. I'm not saying there aren't a lot of bears out there. I'm just saying they aren't easy to model. They have to get them to come to bait which isn't easy when food is abundant.
From: Grubby
06-Dec-19
I agree, hard to know how the populations are doing. I capitalized on a 2 bear limit several years back and now I’m waiting 3 years to draw a tag. Not surprising that the Mn dnr is a step behind on this issue. I also agree that the bear population is pretty high right now.