"Our objective is to evaluate whether or not there’s a decline in southern moose populations and if there has, to determine exactly why that’s been the case," says Professor Dennis Murray, the lead member of the research team and the Canada Research Chair in Terrestrial Ecology at Trent University.

Murray says that, to his knowledge, this type of comprehensive, three-year study has not been attempted for moose, or to any other species for that matter.

The research focuses on three main scales:

• Small, local scale: monitoring moose population dynamics through the use of GPS radio collars
• Medium, landscape scale: collecting genetics samples from hunter-killed moose
• Large, continental scale: correlating population abundance data from Canada and the U.S. with variables such as weather patterns

So far, the team is making great progress at all three levels.

"Things have been going quite well. We radio-collared 70 moose last winter and we’ve been monitoring their survival movements and reproduction rates. We’ve also started some landscape genetics work and we’re also collecting moose population abundance data," says Murray.

A decline in the abundance of moose would result in ecosystem-level changes and reduce numbers in primary predators like bears and wolves. Possible factors hammering moose populations are parasites, disease, climate change, habitat fragmentation and harvest.

"Moose are an important herbivore in landscapes," says Murray. "You need to scratch your head when populations that have been doing well for a long time are declining. That’s a warning sign of a dramatic change in the environment, and I think humans are basically responsible for all of the dramatic changes we are seeing now."

Preliminary results of the study will be released next January, and on an annual basis thereafter.