Moose dying in Minnesota at alarming rate; climate change cited as cause

More disturbing news in America. It looks like Moose are having serious problems and the most likely cause is rising temperatures. I have been thinking for quite a while that it will take the extinction of some big and hard to ignore animal species before people will begin to take some responsibility for destroying the planet. The sad thing is that the animals have to suffer for us to wake up.

blogs.citypages.com...

Sadly .. I don't think anything will be done until the population is almost fully depleted....

But thanks for being the voice of protest

Liver flukes and bran worms - how sad. They should have a natural resistance to these but I can see how warmer temps would make any parasite thrive more readily.

reply to post by CB328


Mother natures plan.

Nothing more nothing less.

That's some of the most incredibly naive garbage I've ever read. It's the brutal winters and the herds being to large that cause the massive winter kill. Anyone familiar with wild herd management knows that.

Had they allowed the herds to be thinned, a far larger share of the herd would have survived and been a lot healthier. By not allowing that they cause a larger kill and weaker animals at the end of it.

We've just had 17 years with zero warming and extra brutal winters in that area the last few years. The NYT's agenda is pretty obvious I'd think.

Deny ignorance.

The exact cause of the decline remains subject to debate, but experts cite climate change as one of the main factors.

So really no one knows why there is an "alarming" die off, but supposedly "experts" say it could be climate change so why not. This is a BS liberal narrative piece.

Define "alarming"...Define "expert"...no real evidence, no problem.

I just listened to a scientist talking about this on coast to coast and he said that it doesn't get as cold as it used to so the parasites aren't being killed off as much. He also said they are finding moose with 10,000 ticks on them, so it can't be brutally cold.

CB328
I just listened to a scientist talking about this on coast to coast and he said that it doesn't get as cold as it used to so the parasites aren't being killed off as much. He also said they are finding moose with 10,000 ticks on them, so it can't be brutally cold.

People can be found covered in 10,000 dust mites and it still doesn't mean they didn't die of a heart attack. I don't see the relevance of your statement.

CB328
He also said they are finding moose with 10,000 ticks on them, so it can't be brutally cold.

Wet weather brings out more ticks and mosquitoes.

Stock up on some deet this year if you have been blessed with such a snowy winter.

reply to post by Blaine91555


I see your point.

Where I live on Vancouver Island there was an over population of deer. Then, a few years ago we had an unusually hard winter, such as I've never seen in almost 35 years of living here. Temps just below zero but with most vegetation frozen the deer really had to work to find food. By spring the numbers were way down and all survivors scrawny.

It's not just climate; I remember watching a video about a plague of ticks killing off large portions of the moose population. There were literally so many ticks that they'd kill moose by exsanguination. Of course then you'll have less moose, leading to a reduction in the tick population, allowing for more moose to grow... Nature is very cyclic like that. I'm sure the moose will be fine for now.

reply to post by CB328


The Same thing happened to the Mammoth and the Mastadon , so whats your Point ?

reply to post by CB328


Er... up here in Canada, deers have a drop in population because of harsh winters, meaning that the cold is responsible for the decline, not the warming up.

Blaine91555
That's some of the most incredibly naive garbage I've ever read. It's the brutal winters and the herds being to large that cause the massive winter kill. Anyone familiar with wild herd management knows that.

Had they allowed the herds to be thinned, a far larger share of the herd would have survived and been a lot healthier. By not allowing that they cause a larger kill and weaker animals at the end of it.

We've just had 17 years with zero warming and extra brutal winters in that area the last few years. The NYT's agenda is pretty obvious I'd think.

Deny ignorance.

The NYT article was published in Oct., before this years brutal winter. Previous to this winter, with a few exceptions here and there... winters have been warmer, shorter and much less snow. That absolutely does impact parasite populations and locations. Parasites, viruses, bacteria etc. adapt much more quickly to environmental changes than other species. The parasites advance much more quickly than animals can retreat it takes a few generations for anything to have adapted to a change, in 5-10 years moose probably won't come as far south as they do now... conversely microorganisms and simple organisms have more generations in shorter time.

This winter despite how horrible it's been for us, is a blessing in disguise. It's killed off a lot of members of the species that were encroaching further and further north and causing all kinds of problems such as the effect on the moose population.

ETA: Also, a stable range of global air temperatures for 17 years does not a pause make. Oceans have continued to warm thus the air will begin it's climb again eventually.

Edit 2: Even if SAT continued to be relatively the same and ocean warming halted for the rest of the century, the climate will continue to change based on the warming so far. The arctic ice is beyond recoverable barring a dramatic cooling of several degrees, we will lose all the arctic ice that's a given... it's just a matter of when it will happen. That will impact weather patterns and regional climates for ages, not to mention the sea level.

reply to post by Kali74


I have to agree with Kali in light of the fact the article was written in Oct. I live up here in the northwoods of Wisconsin, not too far from the Moose habitat, but pretty much the same weather. I can attest that winters have been very comfortable for years up here until this year. I remember winters like this when I was a kid, but we've gotten spoiled thinking these warm winters were the normal. This year was a reality check.

Warmer winters have resulted in more parasites. This harsh winter may have taken a different toll on the moose population but since the article was written in October, this excuse doesn't fly with what the article states.