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Pathogens, Nutritional Deficiency, and Climate Influences on a Declining Moose Population

Authors :
Mark S. Lenarz
Thomas W. Custer
Eric W. Cox
Dennis L. Murray
Warren B. Ballard
Heather A. Whitlaw
Terri Barnett
Todd K. Fuller
Source :
Wildlife Monographs. 166:1-30
Publication Year :
2006
Publisher :
Wiley, 2006.

Abstract

Several potential proximate causes may be implicated in a recent (post-1984) decline in moose (Alces alces andersoni) numbers at their southern range periphery in northwest Minnesota, USA. These causes include deleterious effects of infectious pathogens, some of which are associated with white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), negative effects of climate change, increased food competition with deer or moose, legal or illegal hunting, and increased predation by gray wolves (Canis lupus) and black bears (Ursus americanus). Long-standing factors that may have contributed to the moose decline include those typically associated with marginal habitat such as nutritional deficiencies. We examined survival and productivity among radiocollared (n = 152) adult female and juvenile moose in northwest Minnesota during 1995–2000, and assessed cause of death and pathology through carcass necropsy of radiocollared and non-radiocollared animals. Aerial moose surveys suggested that hunting was an unlikely sour...

Details

ISSN :
19385455 and 00840173
Volume :
166
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Wildlife Monographs
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........5ed1c1ebf3dc070364721083fe7a9ba2
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.2193/0084-0173(2006)166[1:pndaci]2.0.co;2