Hiawatha

Wolf Killer here are a few links with pics of a moose infected with ticks, its a really sad sight.

http://midwest.fws.gov/agassiz/moose...us/misc11.html

http://midwest.fws.gov/agassiz/moosesite/wintick.html

Cyrus

Yep, those little ticks can cause a world of hurt on the moose populations. We see it here in Manitoba a lot as well. I have talked to Vince Crichton, one of the leading moose biologists on the continent and he has personally picked over 97,000 ticks off of one dead moose!
The moose bascially rub the hair off their bodies trying to get the ticks off and then die in the winter. He said if you find a moose bed in the winter and look on the ground around it it looks like a bunch of grapes lying there. The ticks get full and then drop off.
It's been a hard couple winters here for moose as well. One area that I hunt lost up to 30% of the moose in one winter.

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1eyedfish

They are not gone... yet. But between all there other problems& poachers, im sure there numbers are down.Those federal welfare wolfs need to be kept in check-poachers need to be charged with grand larceny & do some real jail time, not just fines& revacation of licences etc.

The world is forever changing & will never be what it once was- no matter how much money the feds spend to make there disney like park.

( just go watch some of the tourists chasing the game around there sometime, like its a big yupp photo safari contest.

rather_be_huntin

Found this little tid bit about moose in Yellowstone.

The moose calf crop has been declining since the fires of 1988. During that summer there was also high predation of moose by grizzly bears in small patches of surviving timber. The winter following the fires many old moose died, probably as a combined result of the loss of good moose forage and a harsh winter. The fires forced some moose into poorer habitats, with the result that some almost doubled their home range, using deeper snow areas than previously, and sometimes browsing burned lodgepole pines. Unlike moose habitat elsewhere, northern Yellowstone does not have woody browse species that will come in quickly after a fire and extend above the snowpack to provide winter food. Therefore, the overall effects of the fires were probably detrimental to moose populations. Park managers, in cooperation with staff from the adjacent Gallatin National Forest and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks continue to seek good methods to monitor the status of moose in northern Yellowstone. Aerial surveys of willow habitats in spring have shown some promise of providing an index of moose population trends in Yellowstone, although their current population and distribution remain largely unknown.

Moose are commonly observed in the park's southwestern corner along the Bechler and Falls rivers, in the riparian zones around Yellowstone Lake, in the Soda Butte Creek, Pelican Creek, Lewis River, and Gallatin river drainages, and in the Willow Park area between Mammoth and Norris. Summer moose migrations from south and west of the park into Yellowstone have been confirmed by radiotelemetry.

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Last Updated: Monday, 20-Oct-03 15:17:26
http://www.nps.gov/yell/nature/animals/moose/moose.html

rather_be_huntin

Based on that I think there are still moose in Yellowstone but while reading that I kept waiting for the word "wolves" to enter into it. When I didn't see it I felt like I wasn't getting the whole story. So I backtracked and looked up wolves next. According to this link, http://www.nps.gov/yell/nature/animals/wolf/wolfup.html , there were only 174 wolves reported in 2003. So someone is not telling the truth about wolf populations in Yellowstone because there is a BIG disparity between 174 and 670 that someone else mentioned.

I'm all for wolf reintrotuction but I most definitely think BEFORE one animal is released an acceptable population level needs to be determined and a process setup for what happens when that population gets above that. There also needs be something built into the management plan to decline that population even further if other species start suffering as a result of wolf predation.

mooseman48

It is too risky for wolves to attack an adult moose in good shape. They know this and will only attack a fleeing moose that is in questionable shape. Any moose that takes a stand against a wolf is left alone.

Moose

Wolf killer

There could be only 174-wolves inside yellowstone national park.
There is a large buffer zone that incircles the park 360-degrees. They refer to this as the "Yellowstone ecosystem". The yellowstone ecosystem as they refer to it totals several million more acres. They can not count this land as ther own, it is a mix of wilderness, state land, national forest & private property. In this ecosystem you will find about 670-wolves.

MinnFinn

From what I read and experience of Timber (Grey) Wolves in northern Minnesota, where there is the highest concentration of these animals anywhere in the lower 48 states, they are very efficient at killing any other animal they prey upon. That's both Whitetailed Deer and Moose mainly in this part of the country.

They run in packs of 2-15, usually 4-7 and adult males run well over 100 up to 130 lbs. Individually, they may not be able to take on a healthy bull like someone pictured most of the year. But get a few more of these very strong predators with a couple feet of snow with a crust on it and most deer they find don't have a chance and Moose don't have a lot more of a chance. About the only advantage healthy deer and Moose have is that they can run for longer distances and can go through some very thick brush and stands of Aspen and such, wolves have a tough time following through. Younger prey just have to stay out of their pathes or their gone, too.

The wildlife biologists have been "studying" why the Moose pop. in N.E. MN has stayed relatively flat for many decades at around 800 head +/-. Some other factors may have small affects on their numbers, but thousands of Timber Wolves in norther MN are without question the biggest factor. They hunt and eat any time of the day or night they choose, 365 days/year. The species they prey upon only reproduce once a year at the most. It does take a rocket scientist to figure out the result. "But we must study and study and study some more you know to get to the bottom..." No we don't.

You've got to put some limits on the predators' numbers if we expect the deer, Moose and in other areas herds of Elk to increase or even stay viable.

seadog

Nobody has said anything about bears taking out calves. A study was done here a number of years ago and they where surprized to find that in Ont. black bears are the #1 predator on calves. So if the wolves are taking adults in the winter and I would assume some calves as well combined with what the bears take in the spring , then throw in a tick infestation . Your moose are gone.