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basing moose densities on personal data
Posted by bushrat on Mar 23 2006
375ultramag,
A biologist once told me that "nobody – not me, not you, not an expert native moose hunter who was born in the bush and has lived there all his life, not any other biologist, nobody, can reliably determine moose numbers and trends without a formal, carefully-executed censusing procedure (direct counting with appropriate sightability corrections can suffice for small areas in lieu of a sampling procedure)."
At first I thought, "What? Who is he to tell me that after living, hunting and trapping in the same area for over 20 years, that I can't really say diddly about the moose densities?!" But I came to realize that he was right. I don't know what's over the next hill, in the next drainage. I see things from the ground and don't cover very much of a game-management sub-unit. And frankly, some years I would have said there were hardly any moose, while other years I would have said there were plenty, based on my own observations. There is a cyclic nature to game populations as well that many don't take into account...we need to look at trends as well, numbers over many years, seasonal shifts, migrations, weather changes that influence things.
Gist of it is, Sam, that you are basing moose densities in an area wholly based on personal experience hunting there. And that really means nothing in the overall scope of things. While it is your opinion that there are plenty of moose there, it is possible for your party to "tag out" in a low-density area. But for every guy like you who is successful, there is another guy who isn't, and who comes back to town and says the opposite. Who to believe? You? Him? Or the biologist who actually gets in the air and does a density estimate unit-wide?
We can't base moose densities on one individual's experiences hunting for a week or two every fall in an area.
Mark
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