Moose on the decline in Jackson Hole area


JACKSON - Researchers think wildfires, warm temperatures, and predators could be to blame for a decline in the number of moose in northern Jackson Hole since the late 1980s.

The population drop will affect the availability of moose hunting licenses in the region for 2009.

About 20 years ago, wildlife managers estimated there were between 2,300 and 2,800 moose in the region. In 1991, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department issued 495 licenses.

Now, with a moose population estimated at about 1,000, wildlife managers plan to issue 35 tags in the Gros Ventre River drainage and another 10 in the Teton Wilderness. All of the tags issued for this year will be for bull moose. From 2007 to 2008, the calf-cow ratio in the region dropped from 23.4 calves per 100 cows to 15.3 calves per 100 cows. Wildlife managers say the ratios are a good indicator of a population's general health and that a ratio of 30 to 35 calves per 100 cows is needed to sustain a healthy population.

Scott Becker, a bear and wolf management officer in Cody, studied Jackson Hole's moose recently as a graduate student at the University of Wyoming. So far, Becker said, wildlife managers have had a difficult time bringing the moose population back to where it should be.

"Managers have continually reduced harvest, but it didn't seem to help," he said.

Becker said it's likely a combination of poor conditions on winter and summer habitat that have resulted in the moose decline.

Wildfires, beetle infestations and elk competing for food resources have all played roles in problems with moose habitat and nutrition.

Wyoming Game and Fish wildlife biologist Doug Brimeyer said predators have also taken a huge toll.

"We did document lion, bear and wolf predation in the population," Brimeyer said. "When you have predation on top of poor survival already, it really adds to the decline in the population."

sounds like they were surviving pretty well in
1991.amind the bears and lions and i've seen more big moose in old burns.....
lets see hhmmmm...
million dollar trophy homes and small flying squirrels named rocky?

They are moving to Idaho.

Quit adding new housing developements, million dollar vacation homes, and a jillion more tourists every year and they will stabilize. My hunting partner and I had tags back a few years ago and we were seeing the impact in the Gros Ventre, Teton Village, and on the Buttes then.

It has only gotten worse with the natural conditions changing considerably, and wolves haven't helped either. If anything, the lion and bear depredation is down, as the wolves tend to dominate the area.

quote:

Originally posted by Blank:
Quit adding new housing developements, million dollar vacation homes, and a jillion more tourists every year and they will stabilize. My hunting partner and I had tags back a few years ago and we were seeing the impact in the Gros Ventre, Teton Village, and on the Buttes then.

It has only gotten worse with the natural conditions changing considerably, and wolves haven't helped either. If anything, the lion and bear depredation is down, as the wolves tend to dominate the area.

Yep, as long as our Disney Land mentality rules, we're in deep trouble.

Don

I think they are in decline in the entire northwest quarter of the state. In the areas where we have shot moose, the tags are less than half what they were 10 years ago.

When I hunted moose in southern Ontario last October, the guides were very worried that their population was in decline.

Their opinion was that their warmer winters & summers were stressing the population. They do have wolves (my hunting partner had a brief moment when one presented a shot, but too brief ), but the guides were more concerned about warmer temperatures than predation.

friar

As Wyoming is my home state I only have two words to attribute to the lack of Alces Shirasi "FUCKING WOLVES".

Wolves, wolves and wolves. That lists 99% of the problem. It ain't rocket science, unless a wolf lover tries to explain it another way.

We have ridden into the Thorofare on the SW corner of Yellowstone since the early 1990s. There were many moose along the trail and all along the rivers. We would see many cows, calves, and bulls. Then in about 2002 we really noticed a reduction in moose numbers. In 2007 we never saw a moose and havn't seen one since. There has been NO human caused reduction of wolves in that area! There are areas of 1988 fire and habitat is NOT LIMITING moose numbers there. There have always been grizz there. What is the difference? WOLVES!!!!

We have beat this drum over the past few years, but no one cares. Grad students study the problem and come up with "habitat, human encroachment" BS! He was probably funded by HSUS. Here in Utah the moose population THRIVES inside mountain subdivisions. Humans DO NOT, for the most part, encroach enough on moose habitat to make a discernable difference.

I rememeber a stat given to me by a Jellystone bio: 61 cows and 0 (yes, ZERO) calves.

WOLVES, WOLVES, WOLVES------

quote:

"FUCKING WOLVES".

+10,000

MC,

you and I have left sign on the same trail it seems, and we've seen the same thing. Or not seen in this case. Damn, what a change in a few short years.

WOLVES SUCK!!!!

Nice slogan "wolves suck", maybe I should get some signs made and post them in my gay ass little NE college town.

Kill a wolf save a moose!

I hunt the area from Alpine Junction north to the Gros Ventre and the last good moose year was 1999. It has been on a steady decline ever since. The reintroduction program started in 1995. It takes a biologist to figure this out?

What is a moose--before the wolves came to be there were plenty of moose,big and small but now there are very few. A 3yr old moose is a old bull. They are off the list now but should be put back on by some arrogant judge real soon. Knew it was a train wreck waiting to happen-OH , its already happened.

www.african-montana-taxidermy.com

Our great Game and Fish biologist here in the state of Wyoming did a study on the Moose population around the Jackson Hole area. The only problem is that they did the study down around Elk Mountain, instead of doing it near Jackson. Never did here there conclusion...I bet if they looked closer at the wolf and bear shit they would find there answer.

Steve

quote:

Originally posted by kudu56:
Moose on the decline in Jackson Hole area


JACKSON - Researchers think wildfires, warm temperatures, and predators could be to blame for a decline in the number of moose in northern Jackson Hole since the late 1980s.

"Managers have continually reduced harvest, but it didn't seem to help," he said.

Becker said it's likely a combination of poor conditions on winter and summer habitat that have resulted in the moose decline.

Wildfires, beetle infestations and elk competing for food resources have all played roles in problems with moose habitat and nutrition.

Wyoming Game and Fish wildlife biologist Doug Brimeyer said predators have also taken a huge toll.

"We did document lion, bear and wolf predation in the population," Brimeyer said. "When you have predation on top of poor survival already, it really adds to the decline in the population."

We pay these spineless NIMRODS to come up with these findings. WyG&F is a bad joke for game management! They never should have let the Feds put the wolves here in the first place.

My friend watched two moose out in the water of Bridger Lake this summer. There were 6 wolves sitting and pacing the bank waiting for the moose to come to shore. Wolves are the biggest problem.

I agree, the joke of a Governor should have had game wardens postioined outside the park to kill every wolf that left it.

The state should be suing the hell out of the Feds for the introduction of wolves.

That sure as hell is the truth.

I was at the wyoming wildlife society meeting in lander a couple years ago. there was a student from UW there who presented a study about the moose decline around jackson hole. his data showed a plummenting moose population beginning in 1997. all the rest of his data also supported predation as the problem, but he still kept wanting to blame the habitat. i asked him what major habitat changes occured in 1997 and he had no good answer.

in 1995 near cody there were 5 moose areas
with 5 tags per area.
2 yrs ago G&F combined the areas into 1
and reduced the tags to 5 total.
have heard the tags alloted will go to 3 total this yr.
we will have to reintroduce the moose before to long.
wolves met reintroduction goals in 2002
their words
well used smokepole has yet to reach goals set

I think my father told me he had 12 or 13 points, which was until last year enough to draw a cow tag and maybe a bull tag in an area with limited public land. With the wolf problem and the change in tags, he will be lucky to get a bull tag in 5 or 6 more years.

Wildfires kill coniferous trees which have little or no nutritious value to moose, but the fires stimulate new growth in grasses and other woody plants (like willows) that moose eat, so I don't see the fires as the reason for the decline of moose.

Lions and bears will prey on moose, but they have been around for a long time, and their numbers have not greatly increased, so I don't see them as the reason for the decline of the moose.

Competing with elk for food? Elk populations in NW Wyoming, SW Montana, etc have also shown a drastic decline in their numbers in the past 10-13 years, so I don't see competing with elk for food as the reason for the decline of the moose.

Explosive growth of the human population around Jackson Hole, Big Sky, and a thousand other mountain areas in Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, etc that until recently were timberlands or ranchlands with very few people. Yes, I can see how turning a pristine mountain valley into a human city in the mountains would be a reason for the decline of the moose population.

Warmer temperatures causing the decline in moose numbers? I seem to remember more -20 to -30F nights 25 years ago than we've had these past few years, but we still have some days every winter with those temperatures (or lack of temperature!), and I don't know that moose enjoy those temperatures either. So I think warmer temperatures as a reason for moose numbers declining is just more global warming BS.

Fifteen years ago, moose (and elk) numbers in NW Wyoming and SW Montana were high, and possibly too high, and there were good numbers of moose and elk tags. The wolf population here was ZERO. Then many of the same wildlife "wizards" that today are blaming everything else for the decline of big game, "re-introduced" wolves to the Yellowstone area. Today there are more than 1500 wolves in this area, and there are less than half of the number of moose and elk that were there in 1995.

So what is the real cause for the decline of moose and elk and deer and bighorn sheep in the Greater Yellowstone Area?

quote:

Originally posted by buffybr:
Fifteen years ago, moose (and elk) numbers in NW Wyoming and SW Montana were high, and possibly too high, and there were good numbers of moose and elk tags. The wolf population here was ZERO. Then many of the same wildlife "wizards" that today are blaming everything else for the decline of big game, "re-introduced" wolves to the Yellowstone area. Today there are more than 1500 wolves in this area, and there are less than half of the number of moose and elk that were there in 1995.

The answer is obvious. But, the wolf huggers have no concept of the reality you state. The can't think rationally; all they have is their fucked up agenda of saving the wolves.
I would wish that every one of the wolf lovers would witness a wolf pack killing a newborn Elk or Moose calf. And then make them watch that over, and over, and over till they puke.

Don

I hunted with a friend in moose area 37 this last fall. he had the moose tag and I hunted elk, it was any elk in the area. I spent 7 days in the area and saw a cow and calf moose out on Indain lake island. I never saw another moose in wyo. The fact is I never saw an elk in the area. on the 5 day I did see some deer.
Saw wolf tracks everywhere I went. I saw Idaho deer hunters camped 7 miles inside wyo.? they even told us they were hunting deer.
Rock lake [near winegar hole] is a bout 1/8 the size it should be due to the lack of water. I never went into the winter range so I will not comment on habitat.
Every thing I saw told me there's big problems over there and wolves are not helping.

The guy I was with had spend a week hunting there earlier in the season and had saw the same cow and calf at Indain Lake and a cow and calf at the south end off badger Cr. that week.

One for the fish Bio from Greenriver did see 1 bull in 13 hunting days. It was about a 40" bull but he had shot one bigger about 10 years before this hunt.