Story by the Winnipeg Free Press: Across the continent, wildlife biologists are sounding the alarm for moose, warning climate change and hunting are killing off the king of the boreal forest. Manitoba, sitting as it does at the crossroads of North America, straddles the geographic hot spot for failing moose numbers. Weeks ago, retired Winnipeg biologist Vince Crichton shared his own concerns during a tour of moose terrain in Riding Mountain National Park, the one place where moose should be safe and flourishing.
He’s apprehensive southern Manitoba is nearing the point of no return for historic moose numbers.
When Crichton and the other 20 authors of the bible of moose biology, The Ecology and Management of North American Moose, are worried, we all should be, too.
“We all need to work together so little Julia and your grandchildren can enjoy what we did,” Crichton said. Julia is his granddaughter and the apple of this scientist’s eye. “She knows more about moose than I did at her age.”
Consider this a warning the days of hunting moose with a gun or a camera might never be the same again.
Now retired and a popular speaker on the hunting lecture circuit— he’s a standard at Cabela’s Canada — Crichton’s years of work in Manitoba Conservation left him convinced there is one culprit standing in the way of saving moose — and it’s not climate change.
It’s poaching, he said. Continue reading….
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