Minnesota DNR notes 30% drop in annual moose count but says population is stable

Minnesota's moose population estimate, arrived at each winter by aerial survey, dropped 30% this year but didn't raise alarms at the Department of Natural Resources.

A DNR news release issued Friday said the agency's 2023 population estimate of 3,290 moose compares to last year's estimate of 4,700 moose. The DNR said annual changes since 2013 "appear to be relatively small on average and random, with some years showing a population increase and others a decrease.''

The release stressed in the opening paragraph that the latest population estimate "marks a decade of Minnesota's moose population remaining relatively stable."

"Stabilized doesn't mean the population is constant," John Giudice, DNR wildlife biometrician, said in the news release. Instead, annual changes since 2013 "appear to be relatively small on average and random, with some years showing a population increase and others a decrease."

While estimates suggest continued stability in the moose population at around 3,700 animals, with reproductive success, DNR noted in its release that "Minnesota moose remain at risk given long-term trends.''

As recently as 2009, the state's moose population was estimated at 8,000. An extensive Star Tribune story in 2017 said state and tribal biologists pinpointed a parasitic brainworm carried by deer as the culprit for Minnesota's shrinking moose population.

Friday's population announcement also noted that researchers with the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa have reported high mortality rates on collared moose and similar decreases in aerial surveys around Grand Portage, Minn., and Isle Royale. The news release said the band's research data "suggest the magnitude of this year's decline could be more than an artifact of sampling.''

"Continued comparisons in coming years will help answer that question,'' the DNR said.

This year's aerial moose survey by the DNR, Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the 1854 Treaty Authority was flown in January and completed Jan. 28. The final report by scientists involved in the survey was completed Feb. 17, but results were not released by DNR until Friday.

Mike Schrage, wildlife biologist for the Fond du Lac Band, said he was hoping for the survey to count closer to 4,000 moose, a result that might have signaled a possible uptick in the moose population. "I was disappointed with the result,'' he said. "But without other evidence I'm not ready to say there's a 30 percent decrease in the moose population.''

More years of data would be needed to make such an assessment, he said. With so much snow on the ground in moose country this year, it was possible that more animals than usual were tucked into the cover of trees and not visible from the air, he said.

"I'm not hitting the panic button,'' Schrage said.