Sometimes it feels like I've been following the plight of northeastern Minnesota moose for as long as wildlife managers from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources have been, so when I read this week that officials finally got 31 moose fitted with some new high tech GPS collars as part of a ground-breaking new mortality study I got a little excited.

Maybe we will finally get an answer to the question that has been vexing state wildlife officials and moose hunters and enthusiasts since the early 2000's: What is killing adult moose at a rate of 20 percent annually in Minnesota.

The DNR, which has been doing aerial counts of moose in Minnesota since the 1960's, launched the moose mortality research project last week. Their goal this winter is to capture and collar 100 adult moose in the Grand Marias, Ely and Two Harbors areas in the weeks ahead as part of the most sophisticated moose research project ever conducted.

And while this might be the first phase of a new multiple-year project, in my mind it's the continuation of a nearly decade-long look at a species fading from the deep woods of Minnesota at an alarming rate.

I first became interested in the state of the moose back in the mid-2000's when I did my first story on their mysterious decline as a writer for the Mesabi Daily News in Virginia, Minn.

To be honest, at the time I didn't think much of the decline - the fact that several hundred moose were were dying during a year seemed sort of natural to me. After all, with hunting and wolf pressure and, of course, vehicle/moose collisions, it didn't surprise me.

It wasn't until a couple of years later, when I did a follow-up story on the continued drop in the population, that I realized what a serious situation it was because that's when officials started to say out loud that hunting and predators weren't the main cause of death and that they weren't sure what was going on.

And while there are plenty of guesses as to the cause, officials still haven not pinpointed the reason why since 2006 the population has gone from an estimated 8,501 moose to 4,230 in 2012.

Wildlife officials first turned their attention to northeastern Minnesota in 2002 after moose in the northwestern part of the state essentially disappeared over the prior 20-year time period.

After several years of study through various means, including traditional collaring techniques, in 2008, the Minnesota Legislature told the DNR to create a Moose Advisory Committee to make recommendations that would be the basis of a Moose Management and Research Plan.

That plan was released last year and includes capturing 75 cow and 25 bull moose in northeastern Minnesota and fitting them with GPS collars that will track the animals’ movements. Wildlife researchers will also implant a second device in the digestive tracks of 27 of the collared moose to record the animal’s heartbeat and internal body temperature. If the device senses that the moose’s heart has stopped beating, the implant will instruct the GPS collar to notify researchers via a text message.

If a collar determines that a moose has not moved for six hours, the collar will text its location every 30 minutes for the next six hours so DNR researchers can find the animal within 24 hours. The timing is particularly important because fresh samples are key to identifying the cause of death. According to the DNR, once the text message is received, researchers will locate the moose within 24 hours to either retrieve the remains or conduct a field necropsy. 

In the past, on many occasions, by the time DNR officials could get to a dead moose (and they are found in some of the most remote areas of the state including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness), other wildlife had already been to the scene and there has been little left of the specimen.

Also, in order to test for disease or parasites, the carcass needs to be tested soon after death. The DNR developed this project to collect accurate and timely biological data on the moose’s physical condition and the likely cause of death before decomposition.

Using this technology researchers are hoping to learn more about why moose are dying and that information may be used to help inform wildlife management decisions. The $1.2 million research project is funded by state’s Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.

According to the DNR:

  • Each of the 100 adult moose captured and collared later this month will be tracked for the next six years. Six locations will be recorded each day for each moose. The collars will store that information, as well as ambient outside air temperature, and transmit those locations once each day to a central base station.
  • The DNR study is primarily about better understanding the causes of moose mortality. Annual population estimates show that Minnesota’s northeastern moose population has declined significantly since 2008.
  • About 20 percent of adult moose die annually, although the exact causes of that mortality are not well understood. Previous research has demonstrated that hunting and predation by wolves are not the primary causes of adult deaths, and multiple signs indicate the causes are likely health- and stress-related factors.
  • The body conditions of moose collared so far have varied, but many have been on the thin side. Bulls tend to fare worse than cows in winter because bulls have less body fat after the fall breeding season depletes their nutritional reserves. These reserves are difficult to build following the breeding season with the sparse browse available in winter.
  • A second phase of the project will examine moose calf mortality. After calving in spring, the locations of cows collared this winter will be used so their calves can be located, captured and fitted with collars that will provide data similar to that being collected from adults.
  • Data from calves will provide much-needed information about calf survival and causes of mortality.
  • Partners in the project include the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, 1854 Treaty Authority (Bois Forte and Grand Portage Bands); the University of Tennessee, the Smithsonian, and the University of Minnesota.

Research project updates and additional information about moose management and research are available on the DNR website at www.mndnr.gov/moose.

The aerial survey results from 2012 can be found here: www.files.dnr.state.mn.us/recreation/hunting/moose/moose_survey_2012.pdf.