How did everyones moose hunt pan out

[Sam Menard]

The probability of a calf surviving to adulthood increases with every week of its life. Early in its life, a calf is vulnerable to abandonment, predation, disease, starvation, and hypothermia. Once the calf is weened, it should be strong enough to survive the winter (with it’s mother).

It’s noble for hunters to abstain from shooting females or young of the year, but the rational for doing so isn’t entirely grounded in science. It takes both bulls and cows to grow a herd, so if a hunter passes on females or young of the year, then more pressure is put on bulls. There’s an assumption that a buck or bull can service an unlimited number of females but this is incorrect. The rigours of the rut are extremely stressful on males. Severe weight loss, and fighting wounds are just 2 of several threats that a male has to endure during the rut.

In a well-balanced herd, most of the breeding is done by older males. In a normal moose herd, a bull might service 4 cows in one fall. While a whitetail buck might service 6 or 7 does. In the absence of older males in a population, the breeding falls to younger animals who are inexperienced in the rituals of the rut. I once shot a yearling buck along the north shore of Lake Superior where deer numbers are low. This buck had found a pocket of does and, no doubt, had them to himself. I was surprised when I skinned that buck out, not an ounce of fat anywhere… he looked like a skinned rabbit. No way that he was going to survive the winter.

When the ratio of females to males exceeds 3:1, the rut gets protracted which is hard on the male population. Additionally, a late rut can result in late births which isn’t good for the young who are in a race to pack on the weight before the next winter.

By establishing quotas on adult and young of the year, the MNRF attempts to manage the harvest by spreading the kill around without jeopardizing the herd… (in theory).

Something else to consider is that the younger animals make up the brunt of the species, while there are fewer older animals… think about a pyramid - young at the bottom and oldest at the top. It stands to reason that the youngest segment can sustain the most hunting pressure.

IMO if you want to benefit a herd, target the youngest animals and leave the (experienced) prime breeders alone.

My 2 cents.

[Gilroy]

Gret information Sam that stands to reason.

[270 WBY]

no moose for us...4th or 5th time in 37 yrs we've had tag soup, not complaining at all. Had a great time and being up north this time of year is a win win for us.
We stopped shooting cows and calves about 10 yrs ago.
We decided a few years ago to shooting young bulls only and will shoot a big mature bull during the last few days of the hunt(if we see one).