Where are all the Dead Moose

[matchset]

Just out of curiosity, how many dead moose/moose carcass have you found?

i have spent many years up in the northland hiking, and i know quite a few shed hunters.....

if the population is "Truly" declining by 1,500+ animals per year...shouldn't we be finding significant dead animals?

i've thought this for years....but i'm not a scientist.

i do know that two years ago, the fly over plots only included 1 plot in cook county (highest density of moose in any county)....

much of what is surveyed is not true moose habitat in my opinion.

this is a rant i know, and i know that wolves probably take a significant number of moose calves every spring, but where are all the dead moose???

i've found 1 carcass in 5yrs.... it was analized by my professor at UMD and was said to have died of starvation.

[monstermoose78]

Good question matchset!! I have found not found any dead moose around are cabin or in the area we deer hunting. I have only see a live moose and they sure looked healthy to me.

[leech~~]

Like Sasquatch, their bones are dissolving da!

[brian6715]

I found one on the banks of the St. Louis about 4 years ago, but I am pretty sure it wasn't killed by natural causes.

[nofishfisherman]

I've come across a skull or two in my BWCA travels, no full carcass though.

But I'm not sure that means much since I also haven't come across any carcasses of any black bear or wolves and I'm pretty sure they die occasionally as well and with greater population numbers you'd think you'd run across a dead one now and again.

Do you really believe that the moose population is not declining? Even based on the ancedotal evidence of us arm chair biologists its pretty easy to see that we aren't seeing the same number of moose as we have in the past.

[surewood]

Found this about five years ago.

[brian6715]

Do you really believe that the moose population is not declining? Even based on the ancedotal evidence of us arm chair biologists its pretty easy to see that we aren't seeing the same number of moose as we have in the past.

It's not declining, this is all lies... clearly this is a conspiracy by the current administration to come get our guns

[sticknstring]

Good question. I don't disagree with the moose population in decline, but for the population to drop 35% in one year could be a stretch. Outside organizations have been putting the pressure on to close the season for years. Flying over a tiny fraction of moose habitat isn't exactly scientific, and numbers can be skewed pretty easily. Whether or not we lost 1,500 animals is to be debated, but fact remains the population is decreasing. I'd like to hunt moose in MN as much as the next guy, but somewhere you've got to draw the line. Whether it's this year or 3 years from now. Sadly, we all knew it was coming.

[lichen fox]

Maybe they are migrating north into Ontario.

[rkhinrichs]

i feel its like the pheasant road side counts! they are not accurate! What if the good pheasant habitat is in the middle of your property, and not next to the road? What if the mail person was looking the other way? I feel that the same for moose. I feel how the DNR collects the data has NO reliability or validity!

[Bobby Bass]

Last summer my buddy had one of his horses die, the animal was moved to the back of the field and ten days later there was no sign of it. Between yotes, skunks, Eagles and vultures it was picked cleaned and even the bones were dragged away. Mother nature does a good job of cleaning up and recycling. Does not surprise me at all that a moose would not be noticed in the woods of MN As for the decline in my travels I would see at least two or three moose a year, the past several years I have seen but one. A few of the lakes I fish are pretty much off the beaten track so it is not like I am driving down a road when I say I am not seeing them.

[B. Amish]

not finding bones so you're skeptical of research??? c'mon man.

[Jameson]

sigh

If the population was high and reproduction was rapid we would be more likely to find remains. With a low population and poor reproduction we are less likely to find remains. There are going to simply be less dead animals to be found.

[leech~~]

Maybe they are migrating north into Ontario.

That is a good point. If the weather is cooler up there and it has to do with warming, maybe some of them are doing that? We know Elk are moving back and forth.

[sticknstring]

The difference is the elk are moving BACK, while the moose are only moving forth!

[leech~~]

The difference is the elk are moving BACK, while the moose are only moving forth!

Lol really, did they forget their way or the border Patrol only gave them a one way pass? I'm sure they come and go to mate or for better feed as they please!

[lichen fox]

Maybe they are falling through the ice and are all laying in the bottoms of the lakes!

[hockeybc69]

The northeastern range for moose is 6000 sq miles.

Population total is 2700 mosse.

Keeping in mind that a large part of that range is difficult for human travel and presence.

Is there really a big surprise that finding dead moose is a rare occurence??

[Early Riser]

I have found quite a few moose remains in my hunting and fishing forays. I remember one right alongside the Camp 20 road north of Tom Lake in February of 1996, which was a particularly snowy and cold winter. That year there was over 400" of snowfall at Mineral Center in Grand Portage as measured by Marge Jamison at her homestead near the tower. This particular smaller cow moose was frozen in snow so deep just off of the packed snowmobile trail, that it appeared to be standing up. I heard of some other guys finding it a few days later and took pictures of one guy posed as if he was riding on it.

I have had too many encounters with live moose to recall them all, although some are particularly memorable were in very close quarters, including a number of dead moose shot by band members whom I had the honor of helping out.

The last pile of bones I found of an almost intact skeleton of small cow moosewas two years ago while grouse hunting with my brother and son north of the Greenwood River. The last shed from a bull I carried out was quite a long time ago now and was from the south rigde in Moose Valley in Hovland where I have not seen any more moose sign in probably over 10 years.

When we lived in the area there were a lot more moose, hence I found a lot more sign, including scattered bones, hair piles from wolf kill sites, bits of hide, shed antlers, etc. The only bones I ever carried out were a vertebra and a scapula to add to my collection of other critter remnants and items of interest found while in the woods.

[Musky Buck]

I'm with Hockey on this one, are you really rumaging through the thick stuff in July ? Last July was the hottest on record so you were slippin through the cedar swamps etc. ? You'd be killed by trillions of mosquito's, maybe they're infecting these beasts ? If it wasn't for recently killed by t-wolves the deer, I've only found maybe 2 in 30 years of shed hunting, farming, etc. in what was always considered a high high deer density in the state. Now in 1997 yes deer croaked but I couldn't walk through 90" of snow either.

[NoWiser]

After talking to some of the DNR personnel working closely with the moose counts and study, I do not doubt one bit the population estimates. They are all really bummed out about the numbers this year. While there was outside pressure to end the hunt, they really didn't have a choice with a 35% drop in the population this year. Trust me, there is nothing they would love more than to report good news and say the population is climbing back up. Hell, most of them are trying to draw a moose license, too!

Let's hope for a cold summer, fall, and winter this year. It might not help, but it certainly won't hurt.

[Early Riser]

I haven't heard if the 1854 treaty hunt is still going to take place. I know there are fewer band members hunting than when I lived there due to the relatively poor success the last few years.

(Edit on last post. I meant to say over 400cm of snow the winter of 95/96 which is still quite a bit, over 150").

[NICjockey]

I'm picturing the Far Side cartoon: a bunch of moose sitting around a Canandian tavern tipping Molsons and watching hockey. One says, "Yeah, I hear the DNR came through Sawbill to count last Thursday... we were already in Thunder Bay." The other replies, "This outta shut down the hunting season for a while!"

[Musky Buck]

Title is where are all the dead moose ? In the feces of timberwolves ! Man I'd love to gather my boys and get on TV and just light up the wolf lovers who could care less about the majestic moose and just slam the wolves as the problem, half or full drunken of course lol, Slurring my speech so we protect da darn wolf and now look at what we got exstinktion of mooses boys what da ya think of dat boys and a racaus blabbering mess, cut cut cut ! Honestly, I just hope when things get figured out that a success story soon will follow of how people can help them out and send numbers north again. Have fun shoveling this weekend to all, can't wait !

[matchset]

Last summer my buddy had one of his horses die, the animal was moved to the back of the field and ten days later there was no sign of it. Between yotes, skunks, Eagles and vultures it was picked cleaned and even the bones were dragged away. Mother nature does a good job of cleaning up and recycling. Does not surprise me at all that a moose would not be noticed in the woods of MN

With a population Decline of 6,000+ moose in the last couple years....where are all the moose?? Here is one....

Moose are pretty big, dense creatures. They're bones don't just disolve in the first rainfall.

here is a moose, a young bull, we found a couple of years ago. it was found on May 8th.

it was not scavenged at all. guts, and rump were fully intact.

It was sampled for research a few days later, and was still untouched...