Jordan can you tell us where you read this? I'm not calling you out I would just like to know your source.

Our season just reopened two years ago after a 5 year closure. Jordan you do realize the size of Alaska right?

My last moose hunt ended with no moose seen... Plenty of wolf tracks and howling in the night though. Not sure where all the moose went....hmmmmmmm

Our moose calf survival rate here is almost zero right now, Jordan. Hunters don't shoot moose calves. Wolves and bears are killing them about as fast as they hit the ground.
The killing of the majority of the calves pretty much takes place during May and June. The other ten months of the year they mostly feed on adult moose. With basically no calves surviving for recruitment, how does that work out for you?

Restrictions on what constitutes a legal bull here for humans to harvest has been applied to the point where last season in
this subunit, I was told by the local biologist, the total harvest was 15 moose. This in an area that should support an
annual harvest of at least 400 bulls.

Our department of fish and game recognizes a desperate need
for predator control in this unit, but their efforts are
being hampered by an ignorant and vocal minority.

I did alot of searching on google about the moose in alaska. I don't know how to post the websites on here but I can copy and paste some of what I read:

The Alaska subspecies of moose (Alces alces gigas) is the largest in the world; adult males weigh 1,200 to 1,600 pounds (542–725 kg), and adult females weigh 800 to 1,300 pounds (364–591 kg)[9] Alaska's substantial moose population is controlled by predators such as bears and wolves, which prey mainly on vulnerable calves, as well as by hunters.[9]
Because of the abundance of moose in Alaska, moose-human interactions are frequent. Moose have played an important role in the state's history; professional hunters once supplied moose meat to feed mining camps. Athabascan people have hunted them to provide food as well as supplies for clothing and tools.[9] They are now hunted frequently by big game hunters, who take 6,000 to 8,000 moose per year.[9] Today, moose are often seen feeding and grazing along the state's highways. Moose can sometimes cause problems, as when they eat crops, stand in the middle of airfields, or dangerously cross the path of cars and trains.[9]

Wildlife abounds in Alaska. Anchorage is probably the only city in the United States that has a moose problem; there are hundreds within the city limits. There has even been talk of declaring a bowhunting season for them in the city's Hillside suburb. Grizzly and black bears have been shot within the city in recent years, too.

These are just a couple of hints that made me think the moose population in alaska is good, nevermind a bunch of posts i've read on trapperman about trappers seeing multiple moose on their lines.

I wasn't trying to start a huge debate, I was just simply wondering how people in alaska were being deprived of the protein in their diet due to wolves.

Jordan

If you can copy and paste the content of the website I think it would be pretty easy to copy and paste the address of the site. I am interested to see the source of the information.

To me it sounds like the information describes the area around Anchorage. The population is high around anchorage because they aren't allowed to get harvested. We saw a cow with a calf that was eating the shrubs at the executive suites hotel on spenard this past weekend. We pulled into the opposite side of the parking lot from the moose to avoid them and the calf walked right up to the truck. Mom was not happy about that, we had to start up the truck and move just so we could get out.

The moose are relatively safe in populated areas since they don't get hammered by predators. Moose in Anc only end up on someone's table when they get hit by a car. Anchorage is a tiny speck on the map. There are very very few roads in Alaska so very very limited access.

http://www.adn.com/2010/05/23/1291310/calving-season-alaska-moose-population.html

This site says 25% of calves survive not almost 0. Although 25% is very low.

Also fishinhank, i didn't know you could copy and paste the address of the site. I just did now for the one above. It says bears are the major reason of calf mortality. Compare the number of calves killed each year by bears to the number of moose killed by wolves where they kill for fun and leave the moose to rot.

JP Spek is talking about one small area of Alaska, the Kenai Peninsula, which is only about 15,000 sq miles, basically another speck of Alaska albeit a bigger speck than Anchorage.
And 25% survival is high. Most times it seems to fall closer to 15% if that.

Jordan I thkn you are missing the point, we are not saying wolves are the devil, we are saying they do what wolves do. Bears are the same way, both are predators and both are hard on prey species. More and more people are not hunting black bears anymore, so their populations are exploding to the point in many areas you can take 5 of them i believe.

That is just the first year. I would be interested to see how many calves make it to adulthood, not the yearling stage.

Bears might be the main source of calf mortality but the hunters here in AK are not taking the calves themselves, like Spek pointed out. Wolves are the main competitor with humans for adult moose.

105,000 hunting licenses sold in 09, roughly 7000 moose killed. even if only HALF the hunters who bought licenses moose hunted, the success rate is only 13%. Not sure how you figure everyone who wants a moose gets one.

Ok good, glad we all see eye to eye.

Many people think Alaska is small. The truth of the matter is the state is a 1/3 of the size of the United States. Denali National Park is bigger then the state of MA. Alaska has more coast line then the west and east coast combined! Many people can not grasp that!!
Anchorage and Eagle River have wolf packs that run the outter fringe of the city. There have been plenty of documented negaitive encounters with wolves, people and pets.

Not sure I agree with anything you have posted here far so we might have a ways to go before we see eye to eye.

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adf...amp;issue_id=94

105,000 hunting licenses sold. Not Moose licenses. All hunting licenses.

How many of those hunters passed on many moose and didn't fill their tag?

Jordan, many (if not most) Alaskan's are not trophy hunters, they are the lower 48 guys, I did not even inlcude those numbers, they purchased 15K additional licenses. Many (if not most) Alaskan's would like to shoot a big one sure, but I don't know guys that pass on a shootable animal when meat is at stake. Maybe some do, but i doubt it is many.

I posted this on the tapper talk a couple years ago, I found this elk laying on a small island early in the morning, and I was by there the night before and it wasn't there, so this cow was taken down and eaten in less than 12 hours, and yes I have proof it was a pack of wolves.



some tracks of the wolves.




And the biggest clue was that someone came by earlier than me and seen some wolves eating on the elk, and decided to make sure there was one less eating elk.



And last year here is a cow elk they killed and after they killed it they never ate a single bite of this cow.

Jordan are you afraid of wolves?

I'm terrified of Wolves.