Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Wyoming
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Snowy Range moose are at a crossroads. Managers have considered the population to be performing well because it is recently introduced and has had abundant forage, however, the current status of the population and the influence of harvest, remain uncertain. This has created considerable uncertainty in how these moose should be manged (i.e., harvest levels) over the long term, and what can be done to maintain productivity and reduce the probabilility of a population decline which has become the norm for Shiras moose across much of their range. The overall goal of the proposed project is to characterize the population trajectory of moose in the Snowy Range to determine if the population is increasing or decreasing under current management. We also seek to understand the primary factors influencing population performance (especially nutrition), and to develop cost-effective tools to aid in the long-term monitoring and management.