DNR Launchs Study To Determine Why Minnesota Moose Herd Is Dying Off.

A project is being launched in Northeastern Minnesota to determine why the moose population is declining. In the Northwest part of the state, the herd has all but disappeared in the past 10-years.

 

 

 

 

(KFGO File Photo)

A project is being launched in Northeastern Minnesota to determine why the moose population is declining. In the Northwest part of the state, the herd has all but disappeared in the past 10-years.

As of last March, the state's moose population was estimated at around 42-hundred, a 14-percent decline from the previous year's estimate, and less than half of what it was in 2006. In addition to G-P-S monitoring, the moose will be fitted with mortality implant transmitters that will measure the animal's internal body temperature and tell if its heart is beating.

The Department of Natural Resources' Erika Butler says that will help officials determine whether the animals are experiencing a physiological response to heat. Butler says parasites and disease may also be among the reasons for the decline.

 

Don Haney

   

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