Intensive research still being done on Minnesota moose

Researchers in northern Minnesota continue to aggressively look for reasons why the numbers of moose in the state have fallen so dramatically over the last decade or so.

The plight of the moose is a familiar issue to people in northwestern Ontario but the trouble was first spotted south of the border.

• MNRF cancels aerial moose surveys in five Management Units in northwestern Ontario

• Hunters criticize reduction in moose hunting near Thunder Bay, Ont.

• Ontario's moose, bat populations in danger: provincial report

In 2012, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources banned moose hunting altogether in the state; since then, it has spent millions of dollars on research and study to try and figure out what's killing their moose. That has included looking at what's been killing the calves since the hunt was banned.

"About 68 per cent of the mortality of calves was by wolf predation," Glenn DelGiudice, a leader with the Minnesota moose project, told CBC Thunder Bay's outdoor columnist Gord Ellis.

"A much smaller percentage — about 16 per cent by black bear predation, and then just miscellaneous things," he added.

Research data also showed an improvement in the survival rates of the calves in recent years. DelGiudice said when they started their probe, their survival rate was only about 26 per cent. That number has risen to about 40 per cent in the past couple of years.

"[It's] a great improvement," he added, "but still lower than we'd like to see."

Click here to hear Gord Ellis' interview with Glenn DelGiudice on the updated research into the Minnesota moose herd.