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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMinnesota cancels moose hunting as population plummets
MINNEAPOLIS Minnesota canceled the state's 2013 and future moose hunting seasons Wednesday, citing a "precipitous" decline in the animal's population.
Department of Natural Resources officials said in a news release that their annual aerial survey to estimate Minnesota's moose population was "extremely disappointing." The survey conducted last month pegged the population at 2,760 animals, down from 4,230 last winter. Minnesota's moose numbers were estimated as high as 8,840 in 2006.
"The state's moose population has been in decline for years but never at the precipitous rate documented this winter," Landwehr said in the statement. "This is further and definitive evidence the population is not healthy. It reaffirms the conservation community's need to better understand why this iconic species of the north is disappearing from our state."
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Three state senators introduced a bill Tuesday to impose a temporary moratorium on the moose season. The owner of an outfitting service at the end of the Gunflint Trail, in Minnesota's prime moose country, started an online petition drive last month to stop the hunt.
http://news.msn.com/us/minnesota-cancels-moose-hunting-as-population-plummets
onehandle
(51,122 posts)RebelOne
(30,947 posts)Nowadays, it all about trophy hunting.
narnian60
(3,510 posts)NickB79
(19,258 posts)(And I am), I'd rather it's wild game that lived it's life free and died quickly with a bullet or arrow, not crammed into cages and pens, pumped full of antibiotics and fattened on grains, tortured and eventually slaughtered for meat.
And FYI, it's illegal to waste game animal meat in every state. If you shoot it, you have to either use the meat, or donate it to a food shelf. Killing a deer, elk, bear or moose only for it's head or hide is grounds for heavy fines, gun confiscation, and revocation of hunting privileges for years.
formercia
(18,479 posts)has allowed the Tick populations to flourish. Moose, weakened by Blood loss from the massive numbers of Ticks, are left weakened and at risk of Winter-kill.
It's a big problem in Maine as well.
Zephie
(1,363 posts)This makes me incredibly sad. I am moving to the pacific north west soon and all I can think about is seeing a moose (how silly!). I hope that the population over there is doing better than in Minnesota and Maine...
laundry_queen
(8,646 posts)when I lived up north (Canada), we had some years there was just SO much snow, the moose slowly starved to death because they couldn't reach any food through the snow, and were exhausted from trudging through it. They started showing up all over town trying to get some food. It was sad. Farmers were actually bringing them bales of hay. With Global Warming, we can expect more snowy winters and more freak dumps of snow that completely cover all food supplies for foraging animals like moose and deer.