The Michigan DNR's Wildtalk Podcast

Moose Extravaganza

• Michigan Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Division • Season 4 • Episode 8

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In this episode of the Michigan DNR's Wildtalk Podcast, you’ll find out what summer work is happening for Wildlife in Michigan’s Northern Lower Peninsula, talk about Michigan Moose with Chad Stewart and Bill Scullon, and hear listener questions answered in the mailbag segment. The episode wraps up with a discussion on how fencing can help to reduce your wildlife conflicts.
 
Questions or comments about the show? Contact the DNR Wildlife Division at 517-284-9453 (WILD). You can also email dnr-wildlife@michigan.gov, and even send your question as a sound file that you record on your phone to be played on the air!

Episode Hosts: Hannah Schauer and Rachel Leightner
Producer: Eric Hilliard
Around the State Guest: Rex Ainsle
Main Interview Guest(s): Chad Stewart, Bill Scullon

Questions or comments about the show? Contact the DNR Wildlife Division at 517-284-9453 (WILD) or email dnr-wildlife@michigan.gov.

Announcer:

You know what that sound means, it's time for the Michigan DNR's Wildtalk Podcast. Welcome to the Wildtalk Podcast, where representatives from the DNR's wildlife division chew the fat and shoot the scat about all things habitat, feathers and fur. With insights, interviews and your questions answered on the air, you'll get a better picture of what's happening in the world of wildlife here, in the great state of Michigan.

Rachel:

Welcome to Wildtalk, I'm your host, Rachel Leightner and joined with me today is Hannahh Schauer.

Hannah:

Hello. Today we decided to have a moose extravaganza and we'll be talking with Chad Stewart and Bill Scullon, all about moose in Michigan. And later in the show, we'll be answering some of your questions from the mailbag. And sometime during the episode, we will also be revealing the winners of our Wildtalk Podcast camp mugs and you can find out how you can win one too. We'll also be talking with Rex Ainslie, supervisor of the Northern lower region of the state, to hear about spring and summer work going on in Northern Michigan. But before we dive into those updates, let's kick off the moose extravaganza and share our wildlife spotlight on the moose. The moose is the largest servant or member of the deer family in the world and we have them here in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Rachel:

These are huge herbivores weighing between 725 pounds to 1,100 pounds and getting up to 6.5 feet to nine feet long. They prefer to forage on aquatic vegetation in the summer months like waterlilies, rushes, arrowheads and horse horsetails, but they will also eat leaves of aspen, maple and birch trees. In the winter time, it forage is on twigs and buds from conifers like fir and Cedar. Moose typically forage at dawn and dusk and are bedded down during the day. An adult moose needs to eat up to 44 pounds of food per day.

Hannah:

That is a lot. Now, because most prefer aquatic vegetation, as you might assume, they are excellent swimmers and can be found in habitats such as marshes, cedar swamps and thickets near waterways. Moose have well-developed sense of smell and keen hearing, which helps make up for its relatively poor vision. Also, fun fact, moose can run almost 35 miles an hour.

Rachel:

It's an incredible speed.

Hannah:

A big animal going really fast.

Rachel:

And as with our other cervids or deer, male moose have antlers and they are huge, the antlers alone can weigh up to 77 pounds.

Hannah:

Imagine carrying that around on your head all day.

Rachel:

No thanks.

Hannah:

Now, the moose rut begins mid September and while I was reading, I came across a fun tidbit that male moose lose a fair percentage of their body weight, something like 12 to 18% of their weight during these few weeks, because they are otherwise occupied and too busy, they do not have time to eat. That made me chuckle.

Rachel:

Yeah. Thinking about the 77 pound antlers, they're antlers, right? They're not horns, so they shed them every year and regrow them. So it's 77 pounds of growth every year, no wonder they eat 44 pounds of food.

Hannah:

Yeah. That's just crazy, it's amazing. Just antlers in general, regrowing them every year, no matter how big they are. It seems like a very expensive thing to do.

Rachel:

And then in addition to expensive activities, birthing calves. So one or two calves are born in May or June, they do not have spots like white tail deer fawns do, but they are reddish-brown and usually weigh 25 to 35 pounds. After a few weeks, the calves are able to follow the cow and the calf will remain with its mother until the following spring. Females do not typically mate until they are three years old and males wait until they're around six years of age, when they have achieved maximum antler growth or reproductive attraction, so they can compete with older and more experienced males, none to mention, just looking more attractive to the females.

Hannah:

Now, another interesting tidbit I found was that moose can overheat quite easily in weather over 68 degrees Fahrenheit, so they really are built for those colder climates. Now, moose can live, on average, 27 years and that's pretty incredible. As far as predation goes, calves may become prey to things like bobcat's and bears, but wolves are the only predator in Michigan that are capable of taking down an adult moose. Now we will be covering factors that impact moose populations in Michigan in more detail, later this episode, when we talk with our moose aficionados. So stick around for more moose matters later.

Announcer:

Pure Michigan hunt applications are on sale now. If you want your shot of what is considered Michigan's ultimate hunt, pick up a $5 application or two, there's no limit to the number you can buy. If you're one of the three lucky winners, you'll get a hunting prize package worth thousands, as well as licenses for elk, bear, spring and fall turkey, antlerless deer and first pick at a managed waterfowl area for a reserved hunt. Purchase anywhere hunting licenses are sold or online at michigan.gov/pmh.

Hannah:

All right, everyone, now it's your opportunity to win a Wildtalk Podcast mug. As a thank you to our listeners, we'll be giving away a mug or two every episode.

Rachel:

Our July mug winners are Matthew Heath and John Claxton. Matt and John, please check your emails, we'll be getting in touch with you soon. They answered the question, how many times does a ruby-throated hummingbird flap its wings per second? The answer, 53. That is a lot of wing flaps.

Hannah:

To be entered into the drawing this month, test your wildlife knowledge and answer our quiz question. What Michigan snake will flatten its head as a way to look more intimidating to potential predators? And your clue for this one is we've talked about the species on the podcast before.

Rachel:

Once you have the answer, email us your name with that answer attached to us at dnr-wildlife@michigan.gov to be entered for a chance to win a mug, being sure to include the subject line as "mug me" and submit your answers by August 15th. We'll announce winners and the answers on next month's podcast, so be sure to listen in to see if you've won and for the next quiz question.

Hannah:

All right everybody, good luck. Now it's back to the show.

Rachel:

Welcome back. Here with us today is Rex, supervisor of the Northern lower region of Michigan. Welcome to the show Rex and thanks for joining us today.

Rex:

Glad to join you, I really appreciate the time.

Rachel:

So we're here to talk about the Northern region. So what are some of the key projects Our Northern Lower wildlife staff have been focused on throughout the spring and summer?

Rex:

So first I'd like to start out by giving staff props for responding to the ever increasing public request for wildlife assistance. Most of these are cases where species are causing conflicts with people. I also want to recognize those citizens that have taken our advice. For those that do follow our advice, we seem to be solving their problems and the examples, our bears, we've talked about bears before, just please remove food sources and fawns, well leave them alone. Geese of course can be aggressive and leave lots of droppings around on docks and lawns, mute swan, same thing. Sandhill cranes are one people haven't really thought about much, but those are really known for pulling out sweet corn as they just go right down the row and I've dealt with a few of those in the past and then beaver are everywhere.

Rex:

Beaver are plugging streams and culverts and causing flooding in places where people don't really want a lot of water, so we try to help with that too and the population's growing. One of the big things is just helping farmers with crop damage with deer mostly. There are bears that do cause crop damage in some areas, but it's mostly deer and we spend a lot of time on that. And then just a couple of items, we have a gym at the back of state game area in Roscommon County and we're improving those walking trails for folks. They're not just for hunting, but also for birding and just other outdoor recreation, so we're trying to make that more accessible.

Rex:

This year, as we do every other year, we do a Kirtland warbler census and the totals are increasing every year and we heard approximately 2,300 singing males, and that's across the state, both on state and federal lands and then in Wisconsin and Ontario and we had a first lake county record this year, so it's expanding and things are really going well there. That's a great partnership that we have with the forest service and the DNR, and there's also Canada and the other states, plus organizations like Huron Pines, out of Gaylord, that does a great job with her on jack pine management.

Rex:

Another collaborative that we're working on, is Northern Lake Michigan Island Collaborative and that's basically around Beaver Island and all those islands, the smaller islands around Beaver, and what is amazing about this is it started out sort of adversarial and we've been able to bring together a whole spectrum of groups from every avenue of interest in nature resources, economics, recreationally ecological interests and we're bringing people together to help us make decisions on state land management and we're really glad to be part of that and we look forward to that being a prosperous way of managing lands in the future.

Rex:

Staff are already gearing up for deer check, especially TB area and that could be subject to change depending on developments as we go, but it is only early August, but we're also looking at improving our efficiency and picking up deer samples for TB, and so we're working with deer processors and moving towards that. But we're also building more collection boxes for folks to make it convenient for them to drop deer heads off for that and make it more accessible for people where we haven't been in the past. The partnerships, they are amazing too, with the department of agriculture in Michigan and also the USDA Wildlife Services, who conduct a lot of the management activities for us in the TB management area.

Rex:

Something else that's going on, which we've been doing for several years now, is working with local hunters and landowners to form cooperatives for increasing accessibility to deer, especially the antlerless deers, so we can continue to work on decreasing opportunities for deer to contact cattle. And then exciting at the end of this month, is our annual elk hunt and while we implemented an online orientation system last year, staff have really told me they're really looking forward to doing live check stations so we can congratulate hunters in person and share in their joy of this rare lottery opportunity to hunt elk in Michigan. And we're also working very closely with our conservation officers to make sure that hunters can get checked very quickly in the field and we don't delay hunting opportunities.

Rachel:

So that sounds like a lot of really great improvements and work being done, both for hunters and for wildlife, including partnerships and game species and non-game species and the tip of the hat to our staff who are working so hard to provide folks with great information. So thank you so much Rex, there's a lot going on.

Hannah:

Rex, would you like to tell us about any large projects or projects that might impact visitors to game or wildlife areas? Any closures that folks should be aware of as they're traveling in the Northern lower region?

Rex:

For several years we've been working on our wetland infrastructure and it's mainly working on dams as they impact wetlands and accessibility for hunters and birdwatchers and others to enjoy some of those areas. The Reedsburg dam just west of Houghton Lake, we wrapped that up last year, that was a pretty big project and it required that we pull that water down that's dammed up behind that so we can get all that work done. People are still going to see lower water levels there, but we're raising those in the fall, so it will be ready for duck hunting and the migration for waterfall. At Backus Creek and Backus state game area, that's just east of Houghton Lake, so we're doing a lot of work around Houghton Lake area, we are wrapping up our construction renovation work on two dams there, the Backus Creek and Backus Lake dams, those do still provide recreation opportunities for lots of outdoor enthusiasts and if people are out there, they'll see contractor activity right now.

Rex:

And there's large equipment going down two tracks and it's really hard to get around them, so people can be courteous so those contractors will get them finished up quickly. Further north up by Atlanta, associated with the Backus state game area, we are removing two dams at the Little Mud and Denton Creeks, and that's in the same area we're working with the same contractor and that's, again, these dams have aged out, they are well beyond their design life, they're 50 to 70 years old and the removal of that will eliminate risk of property damage downstream due to any dam failures and we know what's happened with dam failures this past year, so we don't want to be part of any of that occurring. And since there's so much beaver in the area, we expect that beaver will eventually plug those places back up and restore the natural stream function that's associated with beaver. So right there, those are places that people can expect to see some construction activity this year still.

Rex:

In the future, we right now are in the pre-construction phase for a few places. So further north up by Atlanta at Sage Lake, we are replacing the water control structures there, again, they're aged out, they've deteriorated and we need to get those replaced. There's a high interest in fishing on Sage Lake and other boating recreation that we feel that it's important to maintain that facility. And so we will probably get this bidding done in September and award contracts in October.

Rex:

Similarly, in Houghton Lake Flats, which, again, is right there between US 127 and you can see it as you drive in north, right there by Houghton Lake, just north of 55. We're working on a project that we figure it's going to take about four years, but we just got the engineering finished up and we're going to work on the south. There's two parts, south and north, and we're going to work on improving the south dyke and making sure that that's brought up to construction standards and the south pump house station, which provides the water control for that area, we're going to refurbish and bring that back up to modern standards and it'll be a lot safer and more effective and expect to see that work to begin next spring.

Rex:

Behind that one, over at [Manor 00:15:38] steamers, which is way over on the west side of Lake Michigan, we're working on a very similar project to reconstruct some of those dykes and change water control structures. We've already done some work with Ducks Unlimited on that project and this is a continuation of that, but we want to make sure that we at least restore some of those dykes back to design specifications. There'll also be some plans that we're working with, reviewing with the local community right now, which we'll be talking about early August, to see how we can work together in the future as we make these alterations to these wetland structures. And so we're looking forward to working with community on that one to make sure that we address their concerns and they also understand what we have to work with.

Hannah:

You guys have your hands full, that's a lot of good work going on for wildlife in your region and that's certainly enough to keep you all busy for some time.

Rex:

Yeah. And that's not the whole list, but I'm going to stop right here.

Hannah:

Yes. Well, those are some good highlights and good things for folks to be aware, who are hanging out in those areas, whether it be birdwatching hunting or something else, so just good for folks to keep in mind. So we really appreciate you sharing all these projects with us and our listeners, so thanks so much for joining us today Rex, and for our listeners, the next month we'll be hearing an update from the Southeast region, talking about fall happenings and next up, more moose extravaganza, so don't go anywhere.

Announcer:

Did you know that you can take your hunting and fishing regulations with you wherever you go? Have access to the information you need, when you need it, right on your smartphone. Just visit michigan.gov/dnrdigest to download the applicable Hunting Digest before you head out to the woods or the Michigan Fishing Guide before you hit the water. Download the most up-to-date regulations available today at michigan.gov/dnrdigests.

Hannah:

Welcome back to wild talk. Joining us today are the DNRs moose aficionados, Chad Stewart, the deer and elk and moose program specialist and Bill Scullon, field operations manager in the Upper Peninsula. Welcome guys, thanks for joining us to talk all about moose here in Michigan. Since you both been previous guests on the show, we'll just dive right in to our questions. So my first question to kick us off, do we have a lot of moose in Michigan? And where in the Upper Peninsula are they found?

Bill:

We have two populations of moose in the Upper Peninsula. In the Eastern Peninsula in Schoolcraft, Mackinac and part of Chippewa County, we have a relatively small grouping of animals, we believe between 50 to 70, that are pretty dispersed on a very large landscape. We don't follow that group very thoroughly, we monitor it through anecdotal reporting from public observations, from reports from our field staff, from conservation officers. The core of moose population and the core of our moose reign is in Baraga, Houghton, Marquette and Iron counties, where those four counties join each other in the Western Peninsula, and that's where we have the crux of our main population and moose population that we follow intensively. And there we have between four 50 to 500 moose give or take.

Hannah:

So a few pockets of moose here in the Upper Peninsula. Now, has the moose population changed over time or has it always been these small little pockets?

Bill:

Where we find them has been relatively stable. The moose in the Western principle were brought in from Algonquin National Park in Ontario, back in 1985 and 1987, that's where the population originated from, and it slowly increased from the 50 or 60 animals that were brought in the two different moose lifts that occurred back then. So it has grown steadily over time to the population we have now, although in the last five to 10 years, the population growth rate has relatively stabilized and flattened out to some extent. And we do have animals that disperse across the entire region, we've gotten bulls or cows, it depends on the weather conditions, we have a drought year, they're going to disperse on landscape looking for those aquatic wetlands where they have places to feed. When we've had large wildfire years, those animals have moved in response to that kind of threat on the landscape. So they do disperse, we find them all across the peninsula, but they usually return or the core we find them with the highest predictability is in the Western core range and in the far Eastern part of the [inaudible 00:20:28].

Hannah:

So I have a question about something you just mentioned, you mentioned bringing the moose from the Algonquin Park. How do you transport a moose?

Bill:

It's very carefully. When they did that moose lift, they captured the animals using helicopters with dart guns, the animals were immobilized, they were put in large crates, specially designed transportation cargo crates, put in the back of trucks and with most haste crossed the border or driven straight to the release sites in Michigan. There was a very condensed operation as they didn't want to have these animals contained very long than they had to and then they were released, and this is two efforts over several years that they did this.

Chad:

One of the things that's cool to add too, is this was actually the Michigan's second attempt at introducing moose and this one actually is seemingly successful. The first time they tried to do it was in the 1930s, so moose were extirpated in certainly the lower peninsula in, I think, 1880s, 1890s and they tried to build up the Upper Peninsula population by bringing in a moose in the 1930s from Isle Royale and ultimately that reintroduction effort failed. So with a little bit more advancement and understanding and science and some partnerships with Canada, the translocation effort that Bill mentioned in the 1980s, has gotten us to where we are today.

Rachel:

What other kinds of habitat or management work are we doing in the UP to benefit moose?

Bill:

I think it's important to note that we believe with our moose population, that habitat is not a limiting factor for moose population growth. There are other things that happen with moose that may be more of a limiting factor for the population growth, but one of the things we do on our landscape is understanding that in then wintertime in particular, they browse heavily on hardwood regeneration or aspen regeneration. So you'll typically find them, and they're pretty sedentary in the wintertime, in large dams that are managed for commercial timber products, they'll be feeding on those hardwood regeneration stems. So they'll eat stems up to an inch, inch and a half in diameter and they'll be there for weeks, if not months, in the same relative area, browsing on what's available for regeneration.

Rachel:

So earlier in this episode, we also had been talking about moose because we're very excited about our moose extravaganza episode. And Chad, you might be able to answer this one or Bill, feel free to weigh in. So earlier we had mentioned that moose are well adapted to cold temperatures, especially the Michigan winters and the weather they can dish out. But as climate change is altering weather and global temperatures, are there impacts to our most population?

Chad:

So, as bill mentioned, we haven't necessarily been seeing impacts with our most heard, I mean, certainly we do continue to see very slow, but if not stable populations. But you look across some of the other states and you're clearly seeing that. So Minnesota has probably the highest population of moose in the Midwest and their Northeast population is a little over, I believe, 3,100, they just estimated in 2020, but that's down from about 8,800 in 2006. And there's probably some different reasons for that, and I think there's some attempts at some studies that have been going on in Minnesota to try to get at some of those factors, but what they've seen there is an increase in ticks that are impacting the condition of moose.

Chad:

And certainly it's not necessarily the winters that would have an impact on the moose, but maybe the warmth in the summer that could have an impact. So as you start seeing higher temperatures in the summer, that's generally not what moose are built for given their size and where they tend to have their preferences and their life histories all about. So certainly as you start getting into hotter summers, longer summers and maybe potentially even milder winters, you can potentially see a forecast that makes it a little bit more difficult for moose to thrive in areas that are warming.

Rachel:

And out of curiosity, you're talking about big animals being too warm. I've heard that elk will wallow and lay in the dirt and cool themselves down by getting cool mud on them and dirt on them. Do moose do the same thing?

Chad:

Bill, do you have any experience with that? I know moose are great with waiters, I don't know if there's any wallowing sites in their rumination areas or not.

Bill:

And they will, it's not as frequent, but you'll see, you'll do see that a little bit. And it is something that we do see, they'll be out in the wetlands for hours on end when you observe them, but one thing we have noticed over the last several years or at least in particularly when we have very mild winters, is that the animals we directly observe or come across, the winter tick loads are significantly higher. And that compounded with other factors can reduce their survivability over time, because they be covered in hundreds if not thousands of ticks and that affects their immune system and it can affect just the overall survivability. There is some literature research author that indicates that higher temperatures in the summertime can impact subsequent productivity the following summer, so their ability to bring up calves in the following year.

Rachel:

Does road mortality really affect the moose population in Michigan?

Bill:

What we see in Michigan is that we have a relatively small population, we're talking 450 to 500 animals in this core area and the population growth every year is two to 3%. And the number of mortalities we have from vehicle collisions can be greater than that on an annual basis in some years. Some years it's very minimal, other years we've had as high as 17 to 18 animals that have been hit by cars or trucks and they're usually fatal collisions for the moose.

Hannah:

That's intense, I would not want to run into a moose with my car.

Bill:

It frequently happens at night, the large dark colored animal in road stretches of the highway. And yes, it typically happens at night.

Chad:

And to Bill's point, because the population is so low and the amount of road kills that we do tend to see, even though it varies year to year, moose don't grow very fast in terms of their population size. In Michigan, now the number's a little bit dated, but the pregnancy rate from, I think 1999 to 2004 was about 70% or so, in terms of animals that were pregnant, compare that to the North American average, which is about 84%. Additionally, the twinning rates in the UP are low, so anywhere between 11 and 23%. Compare that with a place like North Dakota, which has observed twinning rates in the 80s, exceeding 70%. And even though we're doing better than the twinning rates in places like Minnesota, it's easy to see that even though the moose numbers are low and the overall vehicle collisions with moose are pretty low too, it might be a factor and one of the factors in terms of seeing the growth rate and explaining why it's slow to take off because of some of the reproductive limitations that we're seeing.

Hannah:

It's good does that we touched on some of the impacts to the moose population now. Earlier in the episode, we had talked a little bit about predation and the calves are susceptible to a variety of predators, but that wolves are the only predator capable of taking down an adult moose. Do we see a lot of impact of our Wolf population in the Upper Peninsula impacting the moose population?

Chad:

We heavily studied the moose populations from the moose lift onward, and I've done a lot of intensive aerial survey work and on the ground work, and we've only ever documented two occurrences of what was believed to be predation of calves or young of the year, our second year animals. So we don't see predation as a significant factor, we just have not noticed that happening in many cases and we find many, many animals that the public either reports or finds or our staff find, a dead moose in the woods that have died and when we do [inaudible 00:29:02] that always find other causes of deaths. Most are prone to a lot of accidents, they get stuck in the mud, they get hit by a train, they die of liver flukes, that's a very common occurrence. So parasite loading can be a significant issue for moose, there's a lot of other sources of mortality as well, but we have not seen predation as a significant factor.

Hannah:

Very interesting, especially being such a large animal, so I was just curious.

Chad:

Well, and it makes sense too, because we obviously have a lot of white tail deer in the UP and depending on where you're at. Certainly some areas have higher populations than others, but from a predator standpoint, it makes a lot more sense to potentially go after a white tail deer than going after a moose. So it would make sense that, from a predator standpoint, to choose the less dangerous prey item.

Rachel:

So I have never seen a moose in Michigan, I try every year to find one. For those who are lucky enough to see a moose, what should they know? What do you do if you encounter a moose?

Bill:

Well, most of the encounters that we have people that run across and tell us about. These are just benign encounters, they see an animal crossing the road, they see an animal in the natural habitat, feeding or behaving naturally. And those are the things people should just maintain their distance and appreciate the viewing encounter they have. And people very much are in tune with when they want to see a moose, it's a desired species to see, people go out of their way to try and find them, they just want to give them their space and give them their distance. We do have moose encounters with people that they show up in somebody's backyard, they occasionally will wander into a town, things of that nature and those are situations where we have to take a little more proactive action to try and mitigate them getting themselves in trouble and causing harm to anybody. In the fall, during the rut period, occasionally we have a love lone moose that'll show up in somebody's horse paddock, so I have to deal with something like that. But usually, typically, most of the situations are pretty straightforward to deal with.

Hannah:

I have great imagery in my mind right now for a lone moose looking longingly at horses.

Bill:

It does happen.

Rachel:

So what else, is there any other interesting tidbits about moose you'd like to share?

Chad:

So one of the questions that I get quite a bit is, why don't we have a hunting season for moose? And they are classified as a game animal, but we have not proposed a moose season yet, largely because their growth rate has not met or exceeded what essentially has been defined years ago by an advisory committee, to initiate a moose hunt. So they recommended a 3% annual growth rate, we are at or very close to that number, but we have not gotten there and we've actually toyed with a couple of different models in terms of whether or not our Michigan population can withstand, even a very limited, small bulls only hunt, and essentially we've not moved forward with it because the margin of error between allowing perhaps 10 bulls to be harvested compared to even 20 bulls to be harvested is very great in terms of whether or not that herd can be sustainable. There's not a lot of margin for error in associate with that.

Chad:

So because of that, we've been very conservative, we've been monitoring our moose population every couple of years to see how their numbers look in that core area that Bill mentioned, but we not felt comfortable enough moving forward with a recommendation on a moose hunt, simply because we don't feel that the numbers are growing to the rate that we feel that the herd can be essentially sustainable, even with a very limited hunt available at that time.

Hannah:

That is good to know, I hadn't even thought of asking that question, so there's a question that comes up once in a while, so I appreciate you touching on that.

Rachel:

And moose have antlers that shed, right? So do you see a lot of people come into the area to try to find antlers that have been shed?

Bill:

We do, that's an increasing trend we're seeing, especially in the last eight to 10 years, especially with the prevalence of back country snowmobiling and the new sleds that are on the marketplace. Typically our core moose range is pretty remote country and especially in the winter time, the few people that have camps in that country, usually they all access it by snow shoe or by sled and that's where a lot of moose are over winter. And we have seen, as we noticed when the aircraft, when doing our surveys and other work is that there's more and more trails back there from snowmobiling and then there's a little bit of ecotourism that's going on, where people are actually... They're looking for sheds, so they're looking for moose.

Bill:

So we do see that and we're concerned about that impact, It could have this disturbance factor because they hold their antlers very late. Typically, they won't drop until late winter or early spring. But there'll be bedded in the same area for days if not weeks on end and so it's relatively straightforward for people to find moose sheds in some cases, by just finding where the animals are just hanging out. So what we're concerned about is people just disturbing them inadvertently, I don't think it's intentional, but it's inadvertent and that could have an impact on the moose over time.

Rachel:

Well thanks Chad and Bill for joining us today to talk about all things moose. I know I can speak for both Hannahh and myself when I say that we really enjoyed this episode and we really appreciate learning from our moose aficionados. Next up, we will be digging into the questions you've submitted to our mail bag.

Announcer:

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Rachel:

Well, welcome back to Wildtalk, now let's dig into the mailbag and answer your questions. I've got the first question from Brandy. Brandy says, "I was drawn for a bear tag this year for the Red Oak unit. When is it legal to begin baiting for bear?" Baiting bear is legal from the start of the bear baiting period, which is 31 days before the open season in that bear management unit, through the end of that bear hunting season. So for example in Red Oak specifically, the hunting season starts September 12. So it is legal to tend your bait station on August 12, through the end of your bear season. Now, there were some changes to bear baiting regulations this year, and so you'll want to make sure you check out the 2021 Bear Digest to make sure you're up to speed on all bear baiting regulations and any other information you might need to know before the bear hunting season this year.

Rachel:

I also had a question from Roger, who asks, "When will the results for the fall turkey application drawing be available?" So today, August 1st, is the final day to apply for a fall turkey license. So if you haven't put in your application yet for a fall turkey hunt, you could still do so today and then tomorrow it closes and the results for the drawing will be available on August 16th. So you can check your results online at michigan.gov/turkey, where you also can find the fall Turkey Hunting Digest or you can call the main wildlife division at 517-284-wild to find out the results.

Hannah:

Good to know, lots of applications and things going on right now. So speaking of applying for licenses, John asked, "What is the universal antlerless deer license? And do I need to apply for one?" So the universal antlerless deer license is new this year and can be used across multiple deer management units. The universal antlerless deer license basically replaces the deer management unit specific antlerless deer licenses that we've had in past years, and those had quotas associated with them, but the universal antlerless deer license does not. So it is available for purchase without an application and this universal antlerless deer license can be used on both public or private lands.

Hannah:

Now, while you don't need to apply for an antlerless deer license, if you are going to be hunting in the mid zone Upper Peninsula, a deer hunting access permit must accompany each universal antlerless deer license. And the access permits will be available by lottery in two deer management units, 351, which includes deer management units, 117, 017, 149, 249, 349 and 021. And then the other new deer management unit created for the access permit lottery is deer management unit 352, which consists of deer management units, 027, 036, 152 and 252. The application period for the access permits will be July 15th to August 15th and you can apply online or add a license agent during the application period.

Rachel:

Hannahh, I have a question about those access permits. So folks have to apply, so you pay $5 to apply for an access permit. Do you have to actually purchase the access permit after you've been awarded one?

Hannah:

Nope. There's no charge to the access permit, the only fee is the application fee.

Rachel:

Got it.

Hannah:

Yep. So in line with the access permits, oh, I should mention, you can find on page 60 of the 2021 Hunting Digest, you can find a map and more detailed explanation of the two areas and the application process. Also, we have an interactive deer management unit map on our website, michigan.gov/deer, you can check that out for seeing these areas as well. Now we did get another question, Paul asked and said, "If I am hunting with my deer or deer cobble license during the archery season in the new deer management unit 352 or 351, and want to take an antlerless deer with my deer or deer combo tag, do I need an access permit?"

Hannah:

So, no, if you're hunting with a deer or a deer combo license, you do not need an access permit. The access permit is only needed if you have a universal antlerless deer license that you want to use in deer management units 352 or 351. So in those two new deer management units in the Upper Peninsula, you need an antlerless deer hunting access permit to accompany your universal antlerless deer license in order to harvest an antlerless deer. If you're just using your regular deer or deer combo license to tag an antlerless deer during the archery season, the access permit does not apply in that situation. The access permit is only needed if you want to use that antlerless deer license in deer management unit 351 and 352, otherwise no worries on the access permit, you don't need to worry about it if you're outside of those two areas. And as we previously mentioned, there is limited quota of access permits, so they're available via lottery, so you can apply now through August 15th. Results will be posted at michigan.gov/deer on August 30th for that drawing.

Rachel:

Thank you for all of that clarifying information.

Hannah:

I know, it's always a little confusing to wrap your head around the new regulation, so hopefully this helped clarify. And as I mentioned, there's more details in the Hunting Digest as well. Now, as we zip this segment to a close, remember if you have about wildlife or hunting, you can call 517-284-wild or email us at dnr-wildlife@michigan.gov. Your question could be featured on the next mailbag.

Rachel:

And while you're at that email, if there are any topics you want to hear us discuss in any of these segments, please submit your recommendations and we'll do our best to accommodate topics you're interested in. So Hannahh, have you scared off those foxes yet?

Hannah:

No, I have not. They are about as stubborn as I am and don't appear to have any intentions of going anywhere. Now, the mulberry trees have been loaded and the blackberries are ripening, so there are plenty of food items around and I haven't seen any rabbits in a couple of weeks now. As I think I mentioned before, we've been actively hazing them, which has made them somewhat more leery of us, but while they're cautious, they're showing some signs that they're getting used to us and some of our hazing methods. As far as my chickens go, I made some updates to the fencing, mostly to keep the chickens in so they were less likely to fly out and become a meal and they're in their coop at night, they're only out during the day. But I do keep a close eye out for the Fox if they do come in the yard during the day, because I don't want to give them an opportunity to try and scale the fence.

Hannah:

I will say very recently, so just last night, I put out some coyote urine, on advice of a colleague, since coyotes and foxes don't typically overlap territories, coyotes usually push out the Fox as they're larger and they don't like competitors that eat the same foods, et cetera. They're probably comfortable here because there's no coyotes around, right? So a colleague suggested maybe getting some of urine and putting that in the areas that they've been hanging around and digging holes in to see if that might deter them.

Hannah:

And so last night or yesterday afternoon, I put some out and last night when they came back to reconvene as a family group at their home base, where the mysterious coyote visited them, there was a whole lot of screaming. And if you've ever heard fox screams, it's a very haunting sound, but I can only imagine that they were displeased by having such a mysterious visitor on their front doorstep. So we'll see if they come back at all after that, but I imagine I'll have to put it out a few times to make it seem like the coyotes in the area, but yeah, I don't think they were too happy about it.

Rachel:

So the coyote urine, how are you using that? Are you putting it on a cloth nearby? Are you putting it directly on their entrances to a den? What are you doing with it?

Hannah:

I channel the coyote mentality-

Rachel:

You channel your inner coyote, okay.

Hannah:

Like, oh, if I was a coyote and I'm going to mark my territory, right? I'm going to put a few dribbles here and a few dribbles there, so that's all. I just put some drops right on the ground or on a spot, I also found some places where the foxes had been marking their territory with scat and marked on top of their scats, because that's how you see if you have dogs. Dogs will mark on top of other dogs markings, so it's a territorial thing, so I figured I'd do that. That's what I did, we'll see what happens, but I don't think they were too happy about it.

Rachel:

All right. So that's the key then for anyone experiencing these problems, they have to channel their inner coyote.

Hannah:

I mentioned that we have plenty of natural food sources around here for the foxes and other wildlife to take advantage of. The deer, wood chucks, squirrels, birds, all of the mulberries, it's been like a rotating buffet around here. But some critters might also try and take advantage of other food sources too.

Rachel:

Yeah. We talked a lot in the past episodes about bird feeders, but wildlife also find gardens and fruit trees appealing. If you don't happen to have any foxes handy to keep your rabbit population in check, for example, like Canada's, then you might need to devise some other solutions to keep them out of your veggie or flower garden.

Hannah:

Yes, fencing.

Rachel:

So hopefully these physical barriers such as fencing will work great. If you have trouble with woodchucks or rabbits or other critters that might be trying to dig under that fence, then be sure to bury the fencing skirt like we discussed in the last episode to prevent that and them from accessing your goods from underneath the fence. For deer, they can jump fencing, they can jump high fencing, I've seen a deer jump a six foot fence before, so be cautious with the kind of fencing you put up. If you're able to, you want to use fencing that is at least six feet or taller for larger garden areas and smaller garden areas where the area inside the fencing is smaller, the deer may be cautious about jumping in a small fence area as it will be harder for them to jump back out. So you might be able to get away with a slightly shorter fencing in those cases, but it will likely take some experimentation to find a height that works best for your situation.

Hannah:

You can also try repellents for deer and other animals. However, by themselves, they may have limited or short term efficacy, especially with the amount of rain that we have gotten this year and probably will continue to get, you'll need to reapply.

Rachel:

Trying your a repellent that makes your flower gardens taste or smell bad can help and you can use scents that will scare the deer, making them think that there's a predator in the area. Coyote urine is a perfect example, but you'll probably want to combine repellents with noisemakers and other scare tactics or use them in a combination with barriers and fencing to have the biggest impact. We will include a link to an MSU extension article with some smart gardening tips to deter deer, we'll tag that into the show notes.

Hannah:

I think that does it for this moose extravaganza episode of the Wildtalk Podcast, thanks for joining us and we'll see you back here in September.

Announcer:

This has the Wildtalk Podcast, your monthly podcast airing the first of each month and offering insights into the world of wildlife across the state of Michigan. You can reach the wildlife division at 517-284-9453 or dnr-wildlife@michigan.gov.