Palm Trees, Sugar Cane and the Maine Parakeets Diminish Minnesota Moose Herd

On January 4, 2013, Pioneer Press of Minnesota carried an article by Dave Orrick about an upcoming study to take place in that state “to figure out what is killing its iconic moose of the north woods.” The article states:

Researchers suspect calves are dying at a higher rate than usual, but the most troubling trend is adult moose in their prime of life dropping dead. Moose have all but vanished from the northwestern part of the state where they once roamed.

Once again, the “ostrich” approach to a problem is being undertaken. Burying one’s head in the sand over obvious facts in order to promote other theories is commonplace in today’s new-science science of outcome-based education.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources released a report in 2011 lamenting the rapid decline of moose in that state, showing essentially a calf survival rate of 0% and not one mention in that report of what effect predators might have been having.

In 2010 the same Department of Natural Resources issued a report blaming the rapid loss of moose on global warming, also with no mention of predator effects.

So, now with head still buried in the sand, $1.6 million will be spent to radio collar moose and see if the poor ostriches in Minnesota can figure out what’s killing their moose.

Jim Beers, a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, commented on the article linked to above saying,

It is interesting that this study is initiated after the first public harvest (12-15% according to lowball state population estimates and more likely 8-10%) of wolves in addition to the increasing annual number of government-killed depredating wolves over the past 40 years.

Robert Fanning, one time candidate seeking the republican nomination to run for Montana governor commented:

Bobby Fithian, Executive Director of Alaska Professional Hunters assn and Board member of a very prominent citizen USFWS management committee tells me that after 50 years of compiled studies Alaska F&G concluded that 85% of all ungulate mortality is due to predation.

Will Graves, author of Wolves in Russia: Anxiety Through the Ages, also commented that:

Declining moose pop in Minn is prob due to Echinococcus g. causing large cysts in the lungs of the moose. The moose have reduced lung power and can’t run far or fight long. Also, Neospora caninum might also be playing a part in the decline.

Wolves, very present on the landscape in portions of Minnesota, which happen to coincide with the same habitat as the moose, are a known primary host of Echinococcus granulosus, that when ingested by moose can cause cysts in the lungs and other organs.

The reading of the Pioneer Press article and subsequent comments from friends and colleagues, prompted Jim Beers to craft a response letter for the newspaper. Here is a copy of that response.

WOLVES & PARAKEETS

It is worth noting that the MN DNR is launching an extensive satellite-tagging project to confirm their longstanding belief that Global Warming and definitely not wolves is responsible for the accelerating decline in moose. The facts that the moose and wolves cohabit the same habitat and that after 40 years of wolf protection and concomitant increase in both wolf numbers and their annual increases and moose that have declined at an accelerating rate simultaneously as the wolves increased at an accelerating rate are dismissed as irrelevant. Everywhere else in the Northern Hemisphere, this phenomenon is and has been recognized for what it is for centuries by scientist and layman alike.

Launching this expensive project right on the heels of the first public wolf harvest in 40 years and in the midst of the increasing government-killing of depredating wolves is a remarkable coincidence: almost as remarkable as federal wolf protection and wolf spreading programs that coincided with Roe v Wade 40-odd years ago.

Just as Roe was reputedly at first only for abortions “up to 3 months” and today is anytime, for any reason, at US government expense here and abroad, and now in federally-mandated insurance: federal wolf protection and mandates for a myriad of elusive benefits has spread nationwide and the many dangers and harms are buried in politically correct falderal from government enablers and animal rights radicals. “Rights” for a deadly and destructive predator were created as the Right to Life for humans in the womb was eliminated to please the radical’s secular religious tenets and bureaucrat’s rewards.

When I told a Maine friend that this proposed MN DNR Moose Mortality Study would, hopefully, confirm that the loss of moose was attributable to Minnesota’s loss of poplar and tamarack trees and the invasion of palm trees and sugar cane plantations; he informed me that he was aware of “peer-reviewed” findings from Maine that indicated that the parakeets in the palm trees were out-competing the moose for the remaining food, thereby assuring the ultimate demise of moose.

Garrison Keillor, are you taking notes?

Jim Beers

5 January 2013