# Moose among us for two decades



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

Move over, Bullwinkle! Moose among us for two decades

By JACQUELINE PERRY, Journal Ishpeming Bureau, 2-2-05 

MICHIGAMME - Twenty years ago today, Feb. 2, 1985, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources completed its first of two successful moose translocation efforts in Michigamme Township. 

During a 10-day period beginning Jan. 24, 1985, 19 cows and 10 bull moose were captured from Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada, and released just north of Michigamme on the Peshekee Grade. 
Michigamme Township officials plan to recognize the historic event with a celebration from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Michigamme Museum. Videos of both the 1985 and 1987 moose releases - 15 bulls and 15 cows were relocated from Ontario to western Marquette County during the second release, dubbed Moose Lift II - will be played at the museum and refreshments will be served. 

"It's a time for us to gather and reminisce about these significant events, especially since they occurred in our township." said Don Moore, president of the Michigamme-Area Historical Society, which oversees the museum. 

The 1985 effort to re-establish a viable Michigan moose population took more than a decade to plan and cost more than $60,000, with several organizations and private donors assisting the state fund the project, according to the DNR. Additionally, Canada received 150 Michigan wild turkeys in exchange for the moose. 

Capturing the moose was a process in itself: one-by-one the animals, which stand up to 6-feet-tall and weigh up to 2,000 pounds, were located by helicopter, tranquilized by dart gun, and airlifted by slings to a central point where their blood was tested for tuberculosis and radio collars were placed on them. The animals then began their 16-hour journey to the Upper Peninsula release site in crates on the back of flatbed trucks. The first to arrive was a 975 pound cow that "was initially confused with its change of scenery," but "quickly trotted off into the woods, its pale legs sinking into two feet of snow," according to a Mining Journal article. 

Plenty of spectators also welcomed the moose to their new habitat. 

"The last day of the release in 1985 I counted 376 people watching and it was 35 degrees below zero," said Sgt. Ralph Bennett of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division for a 1987 article in The Mining Journal.

The DNR first attempted to increase the U.P.'s nearly extinct moose population by translocating 69 animals in 1934 to 1937 from Isle Royale. However, the moose population declined by the 1940s due to brainworm and poaching, causing DNR officials to judge the effort a failure. 

By the 1970s, the whitetail deer population in the Lake Superior watershed in the Upper Peninsula had declined drastically, and biologists in the DNR began to consider a moose translocation to fill a vacant niche. Aerial and ground inspections by Ontario moose experts confirmed suitable habitat. 

At the onset of the project, DNR biologists hoped for 1,000 moose in the U.P. by the year 2000, when a limited hunting season would be considered. However, that level was never reached, due mainly to brainworm deaths. Brainworm is a parasite that is carried by whitetail deer. While not harmful to whitetails, it is fatal to moose. 

The DNR has been monitoring the population since the releases, but the population level has been difficult to verify. 

DNR biologists are hoping to provide an updated population count this winter, said Dean Beyer, a DNR research biologist from Marquette. 

"We're currently working on a site-ability model in the western U.P. to provide a more accurate moose population count," Beyer said. "We started collecting information last year and hope to update the count next month." 

The U.P. moose population is increasing annually by about 10 percent, based on rates of birth, death and dispersal, Beyer said.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

U.P. moose population short of objective from 20 years ago

http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/statewide/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/110790240222970.xml

Sunday, February 13, 2005, By Bob Gwizdz

The Department of Natural Resources is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the beginning of Operation Moose Lift, during which a number of the animals were trapped in Ontario in 1985 and 1987 and relocated to the western Upper Peninsula in an attempt to establish a moose herd there. 

The DNR set a goal of building a self-sustaining moose population in the Michigamme area of the northern U.P., with an objective of having a moose population of 1,000 by 2005. Although estimating the moose population is fraught with difficulty, DNR biologists guess the western U.P. now supports 400 to 600 moose. 

"It's very difficult to count these animals," said DNR research biologist Pat Lederle.

Why is the population so short of its objective? It's all guess work, but the DNR says the pregnancy rate of Michigan moose is about 67 percent, compared to a North American average of 84 percent. That means Michigan moose produce fewer calves, on average, than moose elsewhere. The rate of twin births is lower, too. 

Biologists have no explanation for the lower fertility rate in Michigan, other than it is the southern limit of the moose's range and there could be corresponding habitat questions, such as the volume and quality of available food. 

Otherwise, though, the program is going well. Survival of yearling and adult animals is similar to those elsewhere and Michigan's calf survival rate is higher that the continental average. 

A study of moose mortality shows that trauma -- vehicle accidents, falls and drowning (when the big animals break through the ice) -- accounts for 33 percent of the deaths. Liver flukes (a parasite) kill 19 percent and 14 percent die from unknown causes. 

There were several bright spots in the mortality study, however. Brain worm, which often kills moose that come in contact with deer -- white-tailed deer can tolerate the parasites -- killed only 2 percent of the moose, allaying the fears of some biologists. Similarly, predation accounts for 2 percent of mortality, though that could increase in the future if the wolf population continues to grow. 

In addition, there has been some dispersal of animals out of the management area. Some have wandered east, others south into Wisconsin. A population of about 100 moose lives in the eastern U.P., but those are thought to be made up primarily of animals that have drifted in from Canada. 

Biologists are no longer optimistic that Michigan will have a widespread Upper Peninsula moose population. 

"I doubt that they will ever take off and respond across the whole U.P., because they are largely restricted to these wetland complexes," Lederle said. "I doubt that we'll ever have 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 moose, but that's just a guess. 

"In another year, after this research is wrapped up, we'll have a much fuller picture." 

The DNR currently develops its moose data by following the estimated 35 animals outfitted with radio collars. But the DNR has developed a new surveying technique and will phase out the expensive, labor-intensive collaring program soon.


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