Managing moose harvests by the seat of your pants (original) (raw)

Using a Double-Count Aerial Survey to Estimate Moose Abundance in Maine

2013

Management goals and objectives for moose ( Alces alces ) in Maine are centered on providing hunting and wildlife viewing opportunity. Robust population estimates of moose are critical to assure that harvest rates are appropriate and biologically sustainable while also addressing values of other user groups. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife most recently used the relationship between moose sightings by deer hunters and moose abundance to produce density indices within Wildlife Management Districts (WMD). Due to the marked decline of deer hunters in much of northern Maine that invalidates use of this technique, we tested a double-count aerial survey method to estimate moose abundance in 9 northern WMDs. Density estimates ranged from 0.4–4.0 moose/km 2 , sightability was high (>70%) for all size moose groups (1–≥3 moose), and moose were well distributed across the landscape in early winter. The density estimates tracked closely with trends in moose sighting rat...

Expanding Gis Analyses to Monitor and Assess North American Moose Distribution and Density

Alces : A Journal Devoted to the Biology and Management of Moose, 2018

Development of long-term geographic information system (GIS) databases of species densities and distributions, combined with biological, ecological, and management-related metrics, can help guide research and management strategies. Here we summarize 3 decades of North American moose ( Alces alces ) population and harvest densities collected at the management unit scale for the years 1980, 1990, 2000, and 2010. A summary analysis of these data indicates that moose have both expanded and contracted along their southern range boundary in recent decades - including the Prairie Provinces and states, and a portion of the northeastern United States. A narrow band of relatively stable and high-density moose populations extends from central Alaska across the Prairie Provinces and east to the Maritime Provinces and upper northeastern states. Distributions in 2010 indicate that moose now occupy an area > 9,492,000 km 2 in North America. We also identified that a core range of boreal habitat...

Efficacy of Killing Large Carnivores to Enhance Moose Harvests: New Insights from a Long-Term View

Diversity

We analyzed harvest data to test hypotheses that nearly 4 decades of effort to reduce abundance of brown bears (Ursus arctos), black bears (U. americanus) and gray wolves (Canis lupus) in an 60,542 km2 area in south-central Alaska (Game Management Unit [GMU] 13) was positively correlated with moose (Alces alces) harvests in some time-lagged fashion. Predator-reduction efforts were progressively more aggressive over decades (both de facto and officially designated predator control) and did not have clear starting points which complicated our post hoc analyses. We documented no positive correlations (p > 0.05) between harvests of brown and black bears and subsequent moose harvests for any time lag. Moose harvest was negatively correlated with the previous years’ wolf harvest, but the relationship was weak (correlation = −0.33, p < 0.05). Consequently, we reject our hypotheses that harvest of predators was positively correlated with moose harvests. We also observed no differences...