In Face Of Tick Swarms, Global Warming & Crumbling Pop #s, Idaho Cuts Moose Tags 12%
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The Idaho Fish and Game commission voted last week to drastically reduce the number of available moose tags for the 2019-20 seasons. Climate change, reduced forage and predation are blamed for the large ungulates’ decline, Idaho Department of Fish and Game regional wildlife biologist Kara Campbell said. “We felt like we needed to be conservative,” she said. “We’ve also been getting a lot of information from hunters out in the field that they are not seeing what they used to see.”
There will be 634 moose tags available each year in 2019-20. That’s a reduction of 109 antlered tags and 62 antlerless tags from 2018-19, according to an IDFG news release. The Panhandle saw the largest reduction in tags. In 2019-20, there will be 194 tags for the region compared to 290 issued in 2017-18.
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First, warmer winters and drier summers have boosted parasite populations. Ticks are particularly bad for moose, Campbell said. “Moose are known as not that good of groomers. Just the way they’re set up, it’s hard for them to groom themselves,” Campbell said. “When we get these warmer winters, we don’t see tick die off like we normally see.”
Moose in Minnesota have been observed with as many as 70,000 winter ticks living on them. This higher tick burden can drive the moose to constantly rub in an effort to remove the parasites. Biologist in Minnesota also documented some moose with only 10 percent of their fur left after constantly rubbing up against trees. Bart George, a wildlife biologist for the Kalispel Tribe, said he’s “personally sat and glassed moose and watched them constantly worrying with ticks and moving and rolling.” “They’re just busy fighting these ticks and those are useful calories,” he said. “What we need is a week of subzero temperatures or something to kill those ticks. We just don’t get that very regularly anymore.”
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https://www.idahostatesman.com/outdoors/hunting/article225484855.html#storylink=cpy
