| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Moose Example of Sensitivity to Temperature

Page history last edited by PBworks 17 years, 3 months ago

Moose population stressed by weather pattern changes

Moose disappearing from NW Minnesota, are we next?

Cook County News-Herald Last Updated: Thursday, December 28th, 2006 04:05:27 PM

 

Moose are mysteriously disappearing from northwestern Minnesota. Can the Northeast be far behind?

 

According to an article in National Wildlife magazine, published by the National Wildlife Federation, just 22 years ago as many as 4,000 moose roamed the sparsely populated woods and grasslands in the northwestern part of the state. By 2003, the number had plunged to just 237.

 

Moose are iconic in Minnesota, giving residents and tourists alike a thrill. "They are the symbol of the wilderness in Minnesota," according to Mark Lenarz, a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources wildlife researcher.

 

Puzzled by this decline in numbers, state and federal officials launched a joint five-year study in 1995. At the time, neither predation nor hunting was believed to have contributed to the problem.

 

The study found that the northwestern Minnesota moose pregnancy rate averaged 48 percent, far less than the 84 percent found in Canadian and Alaskan moose. That low rate is likely due to nutritional stress. The moose showed symptoms of chronic malnutrition even though food was available.

 

Biologists suspected that some additional stress must be tipping the scales against the animals also making them more vulnerable to parasites. Scientists now believe the culprit is higher temperatures, likely sparked by global warming. Since parasites have always been around, and the habitat has not changed much in the last 20 years, experts started looking at weather variables and found some startling trends.

 

While the data is from the northwestern part of the state, here in the northeast the weather has been altering as well.

 

Average winter temperatures in northwestern Minnesota have climbed about 12 degrees during the past 40 years and average summer temperatures have increased by four degrees.

 

Researchers believe the warmer temperatures have stressed the moose, making them more vulnerable to parasites spread by deer.

 

Those parasites - liver flukes and brain worms - weaken moose and contribute to chronic malnutrition.

 

Dennis Murray, a professor at Trent University in Ontario says, "The climate change is tipping the balance."

 

Results of the study are just now being published in a peer reviewed publication. The study concludes that climate change, combined with the parasites and malnutrition, has caused the moose population to plunge.

 

If temperatures remain unusually high, moose could disappear from parts of Minnesota over the next 50 years. Murray says they will go extinct unless something changes.

 

In partnership with groups like the Minnesota Conservation Federation, the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, and the Michigan United Conservation Clubs, the National Wildlife Federation is working in the Great lakes area with state agencies to develop policies that help wildlife cope with global warming related stress.

 

 

--

 

Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers

Working at the Crossroads of Environmental and Human Rights since 1990

PO Box 7941

Missoula Montana 59807

(406)728-0867

 

posted to ClimateConcern

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.