Moose hunt cancelled after rapid population decline

4:46 PM, Feb 6, 2013   |    comments
Minnesota's moose population decline continues
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ST. PAUL, Minn. - The 2013 moose hunting season was canceled by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Wednesday after an aerial survey of northeastern Minnesota showed the decline of the state's moose population is dramatically accelerating.

DNR wildlife officials announced today that the northeast population has declined 35 percent from last year. Since 2010, the moose population has declined an overall 52 percent.

In response to the survey results, the DNR will not open a 2013 state moose hunting season or consider opening future seasons unless surveys show the population is recovering.

"The state's moose population has been in decline for years but never at the precipitous rate documented this winter," said Tom Landwehr, DNR commissioner. "This is further and definitive evidence the population is not healthy. It reaffirms the conservation community's need to better understand why this iconic species of the north is disappearing from our state."

Landwehr stressed the state's limited hunts are not the cause of the population decline.

"Yet taking this action is reasonable and responsible in light of latest data and an uncertain future," Landwehr said

Based on the aerial survey conducted in January the new population estimate is 2,760 animals, down from 4,230 in 2012. The population estimate was as high as 8,840 as recently as 2006.




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