{"id":6157,"date":"2023-01-25T15:16:30","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T15:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/?p=6157"},"modified":"2023-01-25T15:16:30","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T15:16:30","slug":"drones-are-tracking-the-nations-moose-population","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/drones-are-tracking-the-nations-moose-population\/","title":{"rendered":"Drones Are Tracking the Nation&#8217;s Moose Population"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/3vT2gsJ8KbY\" width=\"740\" height=\"415\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><br \/>\nLast week, a recreational drone flier in New Brunswick, Canada stumbled upon a rarely observed sight:\u00a0 A moose shedding its antlers.\u00a0 According to wildlife experts, the shedding of moose antlers is normally a fairly lengthy process; it happens only once a year after mating season and usually consists of a moose losing one antler at a time.\u00a0 But in this case, the bull moose shed both antlers, and drone enthusiast Derek Burgouyne was able to capture the\u00a0 \u201cone in a million moment,\u201d a moment that few humans have ever observed, let alone documented.<\/p>\n<p>Burgoyne\u2019s 50-second video is circulating widely on YouTube and on media outlets worldwide.\u00a0 The moose shedding is intriguing enough, but Burgoyne\u2019s exuberant enthusiasm as he captures the shedding from his drone hovering above \u2013 and then trudges into the forest to retrieve the antlers, holding them aloft and sporting a wide grin \u2013 is equally compelling.<\/p>\n<p>Burgoyne \u2013 who calls himself a \u201cshed hunter\u201d \u2013 does earn a side income fr0m selling moose antlers.\u00a0 In fact, for some intrepid wildlife enthusiasts, it\u2019s quite a lucrative occupation.\u00a0 But Burgoyne insists that he\u2019s not really in it for the money but for the sheer passion of the antler hunt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis\u00a0 is like the lottery when it comes to wildlife photography. It doesn\u2019t get any better than this,\u201d he told the<em> Guardian<\/em> last week.<\/p>\n<p>Burgoyne\u2019s video isn\u2019t the first time a moose shedding has been captured on film.\u00a0\u00a0 Last month in Alaska, a doorbell camera captured the same rarely seen event.\u00a0 But before Burgoyne, no human had gotten close enough to a moose to capture its shedding in real-time, let alone one that involved both antlers, adding to the novelty.<\/p>\n<p>Drone hobbyists aren\u2019t the only ones tracking moose in the wild.\u00a0 It\u2019s also beginning to preoccupy conservationists.\u00a0\u00a0 The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) recently announced an expanded collaboration with wildlife researchers\u00a0 at the University of Montana to test the use of drones to track and count moose calves in the northeastern part of the state.<\/p>\n<p>The two groups began their collaboration in 2014 before drones were widely available.\u00a0 Back then, their research relied upon trail cameras and other field techniques to observe and count the state\u2019s moose population, which appeared to be under siege.\u00a0 But with drones WDFW and the University can track the moose in real-time and make continuous observations about their movements, including their mating and reproduction patterns and ongoing threats to their survival.<\/p>\n<p>One of those threats appears to be large timber wolves.\u00a0 In another fascinating video, also circulating on YouTube, a drone hobbyist came upon an encounter between a bull moose and a timber wolf, as the wolf sought to subdue the much larger moose along a lake in northern Ontario.\u00a0 In the life- and-death scenario that ensues, the wolf chases the moose into the lake and the moose defends itself by continually kicking its front legs but the wolf persists and manages to grab one of the moose\u2019s legs, nearly taking it down<\/p>\n<p>Eventually the moose decides to take evasive action by galloping deeper\u00a0 into the lake.\u00a0 Undeterred, the wolf gives chase for several minutes before giving up.\u00a0 The entire encounter is captured in high-definition video thanks to the Phantom Pro 4\u2019s zoom camera and the drone pilot\u2019s expert tracking\u00a0 of the imbroglio from various angles.<\/p>\n<p>The 6-minute video was viewed more than 3 million times on YouTube within the first six days of posting. Comedian, podcaster and outdoors enthusiast Joe Rogan later shared the video on Twitter, which helped it go viral.<\/p>\n<p>While these drone hobbyist videos may well be educational as well as entertaining \u2013 helping viewers better appreciate the often precarious lives of mammals in the wild &#8212; the aerial surveying and mapping conducted by conservationists is having a real impact on state wildlife policies.<\/p>\n<p>The joint WDFW\/University of Montana project has led to the first annual \u2013 and accurate \u2013 census of the moose population in Washington State.\u00a0 So far, the \u201cmoose count\u201d has revealed that there are far more moose in the state than previously known but also that the moose population is under siege, in part due to climate change, but also from increasingly aggressive wolves.\u00a0 In fact, moose numbers have been dwindling steadily in recent years and the joint WDFW\/University of Montana project has spurred some much-needed changes in state hunting policies.<\/p>\n<p>The two groups\u2019 latest research project focuses on moose reproduction patterns, including the survival rates among moose calves that are especially vulnerable to wolves.\u00a0\u00a0 Project drones are being used to complement field studies conducted with helicopters, trail cameras and GPS. The drones can access remote mountainous areas denied to these vehicles as well as to foot surveyors.\u00a0 Drones can also deploy thermal imaging to track moose and their young through dense tree cover, especially at night.\u00a0 And drones of course, are much cheaper to operate with far less safety risk to aircraft pilots and field surveyors.<\/p>\n<p>Other US states, including California and Hawaii, as well as the Algonquin Nation in Quebec Canada, have begun deploying drones to count their moose populations.\u00a0 Many of the drone operators are former helicopter pilots and field surveyors that have expertise counting moose through more traditional means.\u00a0 They\u2019ve turned to drones, they say, to refute claims that their local moose populations are still thriving.<\/p>\n<p>Last June, wildlife experts in New Hampshire began deploying drones after earlier surveys revealed a drastic 47% decline in the state\u2019s moose population since 2017, spurring fears that it might soon become endangered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an iconic species of the Northeast. And so it&#8217;s really imperative that we spend energy and time trying to monitor them to the best of our ability,\u201d says Remington Moll, assistant professor of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of New Hampshire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\ufeff Last week, a recreational drone flier in New Brunswick, Canada stumbled upon a rarely observed sight:\u00a0 A moose shedding its antlers.\u00a0 According to wildlife experts, the shedding of moose antlers is normally a fairly lengthy process; it happens only once a year after mating season and usually consists of a moose losing one antler&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/drones-are-tracking-the-nations-moose-population\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,21],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6157"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronevideos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}