Early in 1981, Ken Childs, Chief Wildlife Officer for B.C. stationed here in Prince George, developed the Limited Entry Hunting regulations.
He had a public meeting at the old BC Hydro building where he was to explain the new rules of engagement. It was a packed house. The previous day I had phoned and talked to a wildlife biologist from Sweden and Finland on their hunting regulations . Both countries are approximately one third the size of our province, yet they harvest twice as many moose.Their regulations do not allow them to shoot calves and breading game.
Therefore you can not shoot a cow that may have a calf or calves nearby. Only dry cows and old bulls identified by the number of tines and loss of frontal brow size determines whether it is harvestable. This way young moose are protected through to their maturity to produce their own harem of moose.
There are serious consequences if you're wrong and shoot a breeding animal.
After the presentation by Childs, there was a session of questions. My first question was why are we shooting calves.
His answer to this was that the mother would shield enough calves to replenish the stock. A very feeble answer but the crowd loved his response. After letting others ask their questions I stood again to ask a simple question - show me a rancher that goes out and shoots his breeding stock. Why are you allowing this to happen?
Again an answer that everyone loved but made no sense. After a few more questions that had nothing to do with supporting the life of our moose, I stood for a third time well aware that I was being stared down by a lot of ignorant people. My third question was why we don't enlarge parks like the size of Wells Gray so animals could herd up for safety and migrate from the Takla mountains to the McGregor mountains as was their history of migration much like fish migrate.
His answer and another very wrong answer was that because of logging practices the moose do not need to migrate as they have all the feed they need now, making the moose solitary animals and not by choice.
Today, moose are not able to migrate and herd up so there are fewer bull moose to protect the cow's calves. The pine beetle also devastated their home and has made it easier for bears and wolves to attack and corner the calves.
The wildlife ministry for years have only estimations of moose in different management areas and have had a failing grade since day one of their estimations.
Last I need to comment on the previous grizzly hunt that is now shelved.
I've hunted 7-24 for decades and have seen very few grizzlies in the area. I applied for a grizzly limited entry in 7-24 where their would be one grizzly alotted. I applied hoping I would win and save a grizzly from being shot.
The following year they slotted for 13 grizzly tags. I phoned and questioned this allowing for a 1300 per cent increase in grizzly limited entries.
Soon after the hunt had been stopped but with no science to prove that this could be harmful to their health. A study in Alberta on black bears recently found that in areas where their was no hunting of the black bears, their health and numbers were in decline where as the area where there was hunting, the bears were larger and healthier as well there were many more bears than the no hunting area. This maybe could be the fate of the grizzly.
Let's hope not but their health and numbers should be monitored to insure their health and numbers don't decline. If you want success for the moose population,phone Sweden or Finland for the blueprint for success .
Miles Thomas
Prince George
