In a forest clearing outside Ely, Minn., two scientists huddle over a moose calf as it dozes in the snow.
The female calf is only nine months old but already weighs almost 500 pounds. It鈥檚 been sedated by a tranquilizer dart just long enough for biologist Morgan Swingen and veterinarian Mary Wood to do a physical exam and slip a tracking collar around its neck.
Soon, the calf rises and bounds through the snow to catch up with her mother.
She will wear that collar for up to three years, said Swingen, a wildlife biologist with an inter-tribal natural resource agency called the .
鈥淭he collar collects GPS locations of where the moose is, so we can see what types of habitat the moose are using. If the collar stops moving, it will send a notification, and that often indicates that the animal has died,鈥� Swingen said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have data really from our state on survival of this younger age class of moose.鈥�
The number of moose in Minnesota is about half just 20 years ago. Conservationists have had some success the population, but moose are under increasing pressure from parasites, predators and the warming climate.
After collaring the female calf, Swingen and Wood ride a helicopter back to camp, which is an ice fishing trailer tricked out into a mobile laboratory.
It鈥檚 the base of operations for state scientists and two local tribes trying to determine what鈥檚 holding back the population of moose in Minnesota. They鈥檙e putting tracking collars on as many moose as they can find with the help of a spotter plane scanning the wilderness with an infrared camera.
Scientist Seth Moore follows the plane in a helicopter and hops out when they find a moose.
鈥淭oday I think we鈥檙e at about five or six degrees Fahrenheit. We鈥檙e flying in a helicopter with no doors, absolutely none,鈥� Moore said, 鈥渟o you have a wind chill that is absolutely brutally cold.鈥�
Field work in February in northern Minnesota has its challenges, said Moore, director of biology and environment for the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Blood samples freeze. High winds ground the helicopter for days. But he said the data is worth it.
鈥淚n our past work, we鈥檝e looked at how calves might survive their first year based on predation rates, and we鈥檝e worked on what is causing adult mortality,鈥� Moore said. 鈥淏ut we鈥檝e never really looked at this life stage of the juveniles that have made it through their first growing season but haven鈥檛 yet begun to reproduce.鈥�
Juvenile moose might be the key to growing the population, said Michelle Carstensen, wildlife health group leader with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e the next generation. Think of them now as teenagers. We鈥檙e trying to get them to graduate and get a job and be productive in society because they鈥檙e the future of what this population can be. So, for these animals that we鈥檙e encountering now, are they going to make it through the winter?鈥� Carstensen said. 鈥淭hink of it as like wildlife CSI. And then if you figure out some of the drivers, what can we do about it?鈥�
A centrifuge in the ice-hut lab spins vials of moose blood as the helicopter team heads out with more collars.
Moose sanctuary
For the last 15 years, a group called has been putting some of that science into action at places like , an 18,000-acre preserve of conifer forest and wetlands abutting Minnesota鈥檚 Finland State Forest.
It鈥檚 a living experiment in rebuilding moose habitat, said Chris Dunham, associate director of resilience forestry at the Nature Conservancy.
There is evidence it鈥檚 working: From his snowmobile, Dunham spots a clump of moose hair and hoofprints in the snow. Further down the trail, he finds a rub where a bull moose has scraped off the bark with its antlers.
In 2021, a thinned out parts of this mature forest and made room for younger, shorter trees that are easier for moose to browse. Adult moose can eat more than 70 pounds a day of vegetation and woody plants during the summer; It鈥檚 little wonder the word moose comes from the Ojibwe for 鈥渢wig-eater.鈥�
鈥淵ou can see all this vegetation that looks like thin sticks poking up. A lot of that is Aspen. That鈥檚 young, and it鈥檚 vigorous, and it鈥檚 moose food. So that鈥檚 just perfect,鈥� Dunham said. 鈥淭his is why we think this area is really just going to turn on as a great moose habitat.鈥�
Moose need more than just woody plants to munch. They also need the shade of taller trees in the warmer months, as well as wetlands, so Dunham said managing the land for moose habitat is good for the overall biodiversity of the forest.
In winter, the forest is still and silent except for a woodpecker hammering its beak on a pine. A northern hawk-owl roosts on the crown of a leafless tree to hunt.
Another reason this preserve is prime moose habitat, according to Dunham, is its relative lack of deer. White-tailed deer carry two parasites 鈥� liver fluke and brainworm 鈥� that can be fatal to moose. More deer also means more wolves, which prey on baby moose.
Dunham said a stretch of hard winters helped clear out the deer, at least temporarily.
鈥淚t鈥檚 great to have a place like this where we want to feature moose and help moose, and we don鈥檛 have a lot of deer. We kind of hope it stays that way,鈥� Dunham said. 鈥淚 love deer for like two weeks in November: hunting season.鈥�
Stressful summers
Back inside the ice-fishing trailer turned field lab, Carstensen keeps track of how many moose the team has collared: 54 so far.
This is the beginning of a multi-year study, so the full results will take time. But climate change is making their research more urgent.
Mild winters mean more parasites, especially , which can infest moose .
鈥淓ven though ticks have been around and the cycle continues, we used to have more severe winters more often, and so it would break that cycle a lot more,鈥� Carstensen said. 鈥淲e have a species that鈥檚 living kind of at the southern edge of where moose exist in North America. They are the most vulnerable to even slight changes in the system.鈥�
Hotter summers are also a problem for moose. Carstensen has studied the animals鈥� body temperature and found moose were less likely to die following a hot summer if they had access to healthy forests with a mix of short, woody moose food and tall trees for shade.
鈥淭he ones that died at a higher rate were more active during the day to try to find food when moose that were surviving were bedded down and chilling,鈥� Carstensen said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 likely the ones that were more active needed to find food, and they were forced to continue feeding and moving and foraging when they should have been having a margarita and sitting in the shade.鈥�
The good news, said Dunham of The Nature Conservancy, is that land managers know what kind of habitat gives moose the best chance at thriving in a warmer world.
鈥淐limate change is big and scary, but there are things that we can do,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd we鈥檙e getting after it.鈥�
Still, climate change may move faster than conservationists can protect moose habitat. It could push the population to the north, potentially out of Minnesota and off tribal territory.
Moore, who works for the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, said that would be 鈥渄evastating.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檝e spent 20 years trying to restore moose populations in Minnesota. And I feel like we鈥檙e starting to see some progress,鈥� he said. 鈥淭o me, it looks promising, but I do think we need to pay attention and keep our fingers on the pulse of these populations so that we can continue to manage to restore them.鈥�
He wants future generations of Minnesotans to share the Northwoods with moose.
鈥淥ne of the principal philosophies in an Ojibwe worldview is what is called Seventh Generation planning. And it鈥檚 this idea that we leave this Earth in a manner someone seven generations from now can use it the same way that we do presently,鈥� Moore said. 鈥淲e have this burden of responsibility to leave the Earth so that our great-grandchildren can use it as we do now.鈥�
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