Minnesota’s slumping moose population has fallen further, and the Department of Natural Resources responded by suspending next fall’s moose hunting season.
The moose population in Northeastern Minnesota dropped 35 percent from a year ago, according to the DNR’s latest aerial survey.
Based on the survey, completed in January, the DNR estimated the moose population of the Arrowhead region at 2,760 animals, down from 4,230 last year and down from 8,840 in 2006. Learn more at a DNR web page devoted to the agency’s wolf research. Read a Star Tribune article about the latest survey. Read a Pioneer Press article about the DNR’s effort to quickly find dead moose to conduct necropsies — animal autopsies — before their carcasses are scavenged or decay.