1. What is your position?

Gary: " I am the wildlife biologist at Agassiz Wildlife Refuge."

2. Tell me about the moose study that is being conducted.

Gary: " Over the past several years the annual census work on the moose here at the refuge has detected a sharp decline from nearly 300 moose three years ago, to down to a hundred moose last year and this year. We haven't seen mortality due to brainworm or from tick infestations that would account for that kind of loss. Based on that and also the low population levels found to the East of here at Beltrami State Forest Area, that used to be higher, and to the west, where the populations are still high and increasing, we decided that with the cooperation of the Minnesota DNR, that we would like to have a research project that would look at all three areas and compare and try and figure out what is going on."

3. Do you have any findings yet?

Gary: " From the 12 calves that were tagged last summer we had three of them die. The first one was probably an accidental death from Mom kicking it in the head. At one month of age we had a calf die due to viral infection and the disease lab in Wisconsin still has not been able to isolate and identify the virus yet. At two months of age we had a calf that looked like it was predated on by bear and whether the bear killed it we don't know for sure but it looked like bear predation. And then later in the year we found two of the transmitters from ear tags that looked like they were shed or pulled out. We think that animal is still alive. And so we have three instances of mortality where all three were from different causes. At this time they don't point to any particular item.
One of the cows was tagged over in the Beltrami Island State Area but moved immediately over to Thief Lake which is 22 miles away to have her calf. Now for the winter she's moved back over to the State Forest Area. So there's some migration going on. This might enter into the picture because the harvest levels have been a lot higher to the West where we have some depredation problems with agricultural crops."

4. What numbers are we dealing with here?

Gary: " Three years ago the population estimate for hunting unit 203, which includes Agassiz National Wildlife Refuge, was 270. That is a fairly normal population level for the area. We have been as high as 400 and have never been below 200 for the last 25-30 years. Then two years ago the population estimate was 170 but then our estimate last year was 110, and then this winter it was 115. So, it looks like we've had a serious decline from nearly 300 to just over 100 animals."

5. How many are you tagging?

Gary: " Our objective, if we get full funding, is to try and tag 20 calves each year in each study area for a total of 60 calves each year. That would give us a fairly representative sample size in each of the three study areas. If we do not get enough funding to do all three areas, we will have to back off from that. Right now one of the biggest hurdles is to try and get $150,000 put together so we can do all three study areas to the full level that we would like to be doing it."