Collars will allow monitoring of movement

The potential effects of climate change and other factors on the long-term viability of moose in Voyageurs National Park has prompted a collaring project.

Park staff plan to capture up to 14 adult moose to attach state-of-art telemetry collars in the next weeks as part of a continuing project on moose in the park.

The project is a collaborative effort among scientists from Voyageurs National Park, the University of Minnesota-Duluth’s Natural Resources Research Institute, and the U.S. Geological Survey.

Collars will be outfitted with global positioning system receivers that will record each animal’s position every 15 minutes. A subset of daily locations will be transmitted to project investigators via the ARGOS satellite system, providing a remote system to monitor animal movements in near real-time.

Standard VHF transmitters are part of each collar and can signal when a moose has died to allow quick retrieval of the collar and, if possible, a determination of death. Each collar is also fitted with external temperature and activity sensors. The collars are capable of storing up to 14 months of location, sensor, and activity data. Collars will be retrieved when animals are recaptured in February 2011.

Voyageurs National Park staff are concerned about the long-term viability of the park’s moose population, given recent declines in moose populations in other parts of Minnesota and adjacent Ontario.

Among factors possibly causing these declines are chronic stress related to warmer summer and winter temperatures and lethal effects of parasites transmitted by white-tailed deer such as brainworm and liver flukes.

“Moose seek cooler temperatures on hot summer days. We will use GPS radio collars to measure movement, activity, and habitat use by moose in Voyageurs National Park over the next two years,” said Ron Moen, biologist at the Natural Resources Research Institute of the University of Minnesota, Duluth. “We will be able to identify forest types that moose use as thermal cover when it is too hot for them to feed.”

Nine females and five males will be captured using netguns fired from a single helicopter. Netted animals are carefully restrained to allow handlers to safely attach collars and collect data related to animal health.

Blood and fecal samples will also be collected from each moose as part of a collaborative effort with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to assess moose population health throughout the state.

The capture operation will be conducted by a private company, Leading Edge Aviation, that specializes in the capture of wild animals from helicopters. Wildlife veterinarians from the Minnesota Zoo and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will also be on-site.

Netgunning is a safe and approved technique for capture of large mammals such as moose, according to park staff.