The Calf moose discussion

Read so much about how 40 percent or so calves don't make it to year one so shooting them doesn't effect the population,
But how many of these 40 percent die well before the season from wolfs, bears and road kills. My guess is the majority that are going to die from nature do in the first couple months so the ones they are being harvested are the strong calves from the jean pool that have more of a fighting chance.
Anyone have any proof behind my thoughts.
No saying I'm right or wrong just curious,
I personally don't see the need to shoot calves or cows with calves,
Should be like spring bears illegal to shoot a sow with cubs or a cub with a sow.

Interesting hypothesis, and I too can't accept the sense (if any) behind the calf harvest. Let natures chips fall where they may but don't compound it is my opinion. However, those who's hackles get raised at any hint of restricting harvests will not agree.

I was lucky enough to witness a cow moose pregnant, then missing the following week, then re-apreading with her calf the following week while turkey hunting this year.

that changed my mind about calf hunting.

But my understanding is that its the harsh winter that kills alot of calves. too short to get over snow, or reach food higher up, as a result they get weaker, and fall pray to predators is that I was told.

calf hunting is just around, to give us a chance to hunt, there is not good reason other than not taking as much cows I believe.
at the end, natural selection applies though. if a calf is gonna present itself to a hunter, then it probably would do same to bears or wolves .... lol

IMHO, it’s better on the moose population to take calves, and leave breeding adults for recruitment. Our group has hunted in the NW for about 40 years. I think we have taken maybe 4 calves in all that time. I’ve always heard the presumption that a high percentage of calves don’t make it through the first winter. We do tend to see lots of yearling moose that have survived.

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Originally Posted by rick_iles

IMHO, it’s better on the moose population to take calves, and leave breeding adults for recruitment. Our group has hunted in the NW for about 40 years. I think we have taken maybe 4 calves in all that time. I’ve always heard the presumption that a high percentage of calves don’t make it through the first winter. We do tend to see lots of yearling moose that have survived.

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Personally,I won't shoot a calf and most of our crew are OK with it. There's a couple of guys that will take one and we're OK with that,too. We're big believers in the "different strokes for different folks" concept as long as it's legal. I could never wrap my head around the "40% won't survive,anyway" concept. If that's accurate,what sense does it make to add hunter harvest to further exacerbate the issue?

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Originally Posted by rick_iles

IMHO, it’s better on the moose population to take calves, and leave breeding adults for recruitment. Our group has hunted in the NW for about 40 years. I think we have taken maybe 4 calves in all that time. I’ve always heard the presumption that a high percentage of calves don’t make it through the first winter. We do tend to see lots of yearling moose that have survived.

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So you are for an open hunt for calves as we used to have?

How do you replenish the adults then when they die of old age?

in my opinion all game that isnt at least a yearling shouldnt be harvested. (deer, moose bear)

if the young ones are to die it should be by a predator or by natures course. again just my opinion though.

We drew 2 calf tags for the moose hunt this year. I've already told the group to do what you want, I'll be staying home until when and if I draw an adult tag. Doesn't bother me if they want to hunt calves. Personal choice.

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Originally Posted by trimmer21

Personally,I won't shoot a calf and most of our crew are OK with it. There's a couple of guys that will take one and we're OK with that,too. We're big believers in the "different strokes for different folks" concept as long as it's legal. I could never wrap my head around the "40% won't survive,anyway" concept. If that's accurate,what sense does it make to add hunter harvest to further exacerbate the issue?

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Hunters were never believed to add much to the overall impact. The idea was that if you shot a calf there was a reasonably good chance that you took one that wouldn't survive anyway. Pretty bad luck if hunters somehow shot all the calves that were likely to make it through the winter. The other part of it (as seen in the thread here) was that groups of hunters were unlikely to plan a moose hunt with only a calf tag. Most calf tags went unfilled. That being said, we usually averaged shooting a calf every other year or so.

Personally I think it's one of those practices that might have made sense when it was put in place but it no longer works.

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Originally Posted by GW11

Hunters were never believed to add much to the overall impact. The idea was that if you shot a calf there was a reasonably good chance that you took one that wouldn't survive anyway. Pretty bad luck if hunters somehow shot all the calves that were likely to make it through the winter. The other part of it (as seen in the thread here) was that groups of hunters were unlikely to plan a moose hunt with only a calf tag. Most calf tags went unfilled. That being said, we usually averaged shooting a calf every other year or so.

Personally I think it's one of those practices that might have made sense when it was put in place but it no longer works.

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Those are my thoughts,too. At the outset,it seemed workable and logical,but,as time went on,adult tags were continually being cut back forcing hunters to become very adept at searching out and taking calves. That's where I fault the government. As soon as that became evident,OMNR should have moved quickly to curb it by stopping automatic calf tag sales and including them in the allocation process or removing calf tags completely. Instead,it became a cash grab adding to the problem. When we add everything together,climate change,Black Bear,Wolf and Coyote predation,the perfect storm was created. Now,we may need to reap what we've sown and it ain't gonna be pretty.