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Coyotes-Wolves-Cougars.blogspot.com

Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions. This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization. Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. - Blogger Rick

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Thursday, January 28, 2016

Glad to see solid science revealing that deer brainworm parasites are the key cause of the Minnesota Moose herd.............Sure, Wolves will kill Moose and it is logical that sick and dying Moose weakened by the parasites are easier pickings for Wolves..........Thus far, the Minn. Dept. of Natural Resources is concluding over the past 3 years of studying Moose that warming temperatures are heat stressing Moose and causing them not to get enough to eat during winter...............During the Summer, Moose can escape the debilitating impact of heat by immersing themselves in lakes and ponds,,,,,,,,,,,,,In winter when thin sheet of ice cover a great stretch of the waterways, Moose that experience heat stress when the temperatures hover at 23 degrees or higher become more vulnerable to the ingestion of brain parasites................More years of study are to come on this subject but "where there is smoke, there is often fire".............The earth is warming---Not good for Moose

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&url=http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/3933459-diseases-health-problems-killing-minnesota-moose&ct=ga&cd=CAEYAioSNjcxNzYwNDY3MDE0Mzc1MDM1MhozYmI1NzAwZGJhNGVlNTJkOmNvbTplbjpVUw&usg=AFQjCNHAmuHorTIDseM0DkFNKD3WT_8lcw


Parasites, health problems killing Minnesota moose


After 3 years of monitoring the Minn.
Moose herd,
Minnesota wildlife researchers say they are getting
 a better understanding of what's killing the stae's 
moose and causing a major population decline.











Preliminary results from 47 of the adult moose
 captured and collared during the past three years
 show that two-thirds died from health-related 
causes including brainworm, winter ticks, bacterial 
infections, liver flukes and severe undernutrition, 
DelGiudice reported. Wolves killed one-third of 
those moose but sickness in 25 percent of those
 animals made them easy prey, he said.








"I think the DNR has come a long way in three 
years and done a good job of answering a lot of 
the unknowns we had from some earlier moose
 studies and what the causes of mortality are," 
said Mike Schrage, wildlife biologist for the 
Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, 
which has been involved in much of Minnesota's
 moose research. "I think they've done a good 
job of getting at some of the interplay between
 health issues and wolf predation."
Of particular interest is how winter nutrition in
 moose affects their health, DelGiudice said. 
When moose are heat-stressed in winter they 
aren't getting enough food and eventually 
succumb to health problems, weakness or wolves.








"It's incredible how it's tracking," he said. "The 
heat stress index of moose is tracking very closely 
with the severity of winter nutrition of these
 moose. What it's saying is that winter nutrition
 could be a key to this."
That information is based on moose urine samples 
the DNR has gathered from the snowpack, DelGiudice
 said.
In summer, he said, moose can go to ponds or streams
 to cool down when they get too warm. In winter, moose 
can only lie in the snow and shade, which offers less 
cooling, DelGiudice said. When air temperatures 
reach 23 degrees in winter, he said, moose can 
begin to experience heat stress, increasing their
 metabolism, heart rates and respiration.
"If the effects of climate change are negatively
 affecting the nutrition of moose in winter, it
 could clearly make them compromised and more
 vulnerable to disease and other things," he said.
Fond du Lac's Schrage finds the correlation
 between winter temperature and moose nutrition
 significant.
"We've been saying for a number of years that we've
 previously found relationships between warm
 temperatures, particularly in winter, and subsequent 
moose mortality," Schrage said. "Glenn's work would
 appear to back that up and show how that happens."
Data that DNR researchers have collected to date is 
far from conclusive, DelGiudice said.
"Only more data on moose deaths collected over
 a longer period of time will determine whether
 the trends researchers are seeing continue," the 
DNR's moose update on its website stated.
DelGiudice said a minimum of six years of data
 will be necessary for a valid study.
"But we know we can't wait to start making some
 preliminary recommendations after three years
 of preliminary findings," DelGiudice said.
Moose for the most part disappeared from
 Northwestern MInnesota in the 1990s and
 their numbers have been crashing in the 
Northeast for the past decade.








In Northeastern Minnesota, moose numbers
 have dropped from about 8,500 moose as
 recently as 2006 to about 3,500 last year. 
The results of this winter's annual aerial 
survey of moose areas will be released in
 coming months.

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