Moose were once a familiar sight in the forests around Thunder Bay. But those sightings are much rarer now.
Brent Patterson, a senior research scientist with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, is part of a team that is trying to understand why. The moose population has declined up to 50 per cent in the population in many parts of northwestern Ontario over the past two decades, even more in the zone around Thunder Bay.
Patterson is co-lead on the ministry’s moose project which is putting tracking collars with GPS on the animals.
“They send us the locations through the satellite system so we can get locations in real time and keep track of where the moose are,” Patterson said.
And if a moose dies, the team will get an alert too — fairly quickly.
“We can have a dispatcher crew and we can be out there on the ground investigating exactly what happened, or what the circumstances were surrounding that death within a few hours,” he said.
According to Patterson, the last survey done in Wildlife Management Unit 13, about 13,000 square kilometres surrounding Thunder Bay, showed about 1700 moose in the area.
But the provincial objective range for that area would be somewhere between 3300 and 4400, he said.
“There was quite a pronounced decline in that area,” said Patterson.
Focus on calves
While the project didn’t see the loss of any moose in the winter season, the last couple of weeks have seen a few mortalities, which Patterson said was surprising.
“You’d think things are starting to green up now, and we’re coming out of winter — you’d think things should be looking up,” he said.
While the adult survival rates are generally quite high, the same rates for calves are seemingly low.
“When you look at the number of calves that are being born versus the number of calves that are still alive with their mothers in the fall and then again in the winter, it’s quite low,” he said. “We’re particularly interested in what’s happening to those calves.”
The immediate cause of death for most moose is likely from a predator such as a wolf or bear, Patterson said. But the team is trying to look more closely at other factors that might be making it easier for those predators to find and catch moose calves — factors that might include the habitat landscape for example.
Calls for a ‘holistic review of moose management’
Mark Ryckman, manager of policy at the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH) is calling for a “holistic review of moose management.”
“This needs to include the impacts of bear and wolf predation, parasites and diseases, an evaluation of habitat capacity and current forest management practices on moose populations,” he said. “And more involvement and information sharing with Indigenous communities that rely on healthy moose populations.”
As moose populations continue to struggle, it means “fewer hunting opportunities and the tremendous socio-economic benefits that moose hunting provides,” Ryckman said.
“Many moose hunters that I speak to are losing faith in the government’s ability to meet their moose management targets.”
Meanwhile, about a hundred moose have now been fitted with tracking collars through the MNRF tracking project, and some will also have video on the collars.
Patterson said it will take a few years before they have a more definitive answer as to what is behind the decline.
