Study: Starvation Caused Moose Decline

[underpants]

Sorry I couldn't resist the headline. Hey I actually learned something for this article though I am not sure how it will ever serve me, but that is okay.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040915_544.html

CASPER, Wyo. Sept. 15, 2004 — Malnutrition and starvation have drastically reduced moose numbers in northwest Wyoming, according to the author of a new study that debunks the belief among some that wolves are a leading cause of the decline.


"I know people don't want to believe this ... but moose are not in the diets of wolves," Joel Berger, a senior scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society, told Wyoming Game and Fish commissioners at a recent meeting.

The Jackson moose unit population averaged 2,400 animals from 1998 to 2002, according to Game and Fish data. The population rose slightly in 2003 and was estimated at 2,736 animals.

Berger's study showed about 14 percent to 18 percent of mortality in adult Jackson moose was due to grizzly bears and less than 2 percent due to wolves. Car collisions accounted for about 8 percent of total adult mortality, Berger noted