Moose Populations Dying Off
No one is quite sure why, but climate change fears are raised
CHOTEAU, Mont. — Across North America — in places as far-flung as Montana and British Columbia, New Hampshire and Minnesota — moose populations are in steep decline. And no one is sure why.
Twenty years ago, Minnesota had two geographically separate moose populations. One of them has virtually disappeared since the 1990s, declining to fewer than 100 from 4,000.
The other population, in northeastern Minnesota, is dropping 25 percent a year and is now fewer than 3,000, down from 8,000. (The moose mortality rate used to be 8 percent to 12 percent a year.) As a result, wildlife officials have suspended all moose hunting.
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I seem to remember reading somewhere that the wolf population is recovering. Maybe we have a real-life Lotke-Volterra model at work?
Not likely. Wolf populations are recovering from less than single digit groups of individuals in most areas. Not nearly enough of them to even allow the two species to encounter one another very often.