亚洲天堂

Lake Babine Nation (LBN) is partnering with the provincial government to conduct a moose health monitoring program, in order to gain information on why the populations are depleting in the area.

Lakes District 亚洲天堂 spoke to Matthew Alec, an LBN technician whose working on the project, about the reasoning behind the study. 鈥淭he moose is whittling down, and we鈥檙e trying to find out why our moose are leaving the area or not being able to be supported,鈥� said Alec. 鈥淲e also want to study moose habitat and how to replenish that.鈥�

Alec believes that logging has a lot to do with the population decline. 鈥淵ears ago you used to walk out and there would be 10 to 15 moose in one spot, and everywhere we used to hunt is all logged off now,鈥� he said.

He also acknowledged however, that LBN isn鈥檛 blame-free either. 鈥淲e as a nation need to cut down a lot on hunting the species especially right now. There are still too many lake bull hunts and things like that,鈥� Alec told Lakes District 亚洲天堂. 鈥�It鈥檚 something that we as a nation have been talking about for a long time, only hunting necessary bull moose because calves and cows are so important.鈥�

According to Alec, LBN does not have any official regulation against killing cow and calf moose, though he claims that it鈥檚 understood among elderly hunters to refrain from doing so, and those practices are taught to the next generation of hunters as well.

The way the study works is that moose samples that are collected by LBN are brought to Smithers, and then sent to a lab in Victoria where studies are conducted. That info is then brought LBN and the province to study.

鈥淭he project is part of a collaborative moose health surveillance program coordinated through Environmental Stewardship Initiative that involves community hunters sampling harvested or opportunistically collected moose [road killed] for tissue samples for health analysis,鈥� said Nigel McInnis from B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Communications.

鈥淭he B.C. Wildlife Health Program is part of this program and is involved in training, coordinating sample analysis and working in partnership with regional staff and several First Nations.鈥�

According to McInnis, the goals of the study are to develop wildlife health baselines, and survey wildlife health and human health issues that include food safety and security.

In order for the study to be successful, LBN is asking that any moose that has either been harvested or found dead in the area is reported to one of their technicians working on the project, and someone will assist to collect samples. Technician contact information can be found on the LBN Facebook page.

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