Deer, Moose, Bears

Population of Wild life throughout the New England region

Much of the New England part of the United States contains valuable wildlife animals such as the deer, moose and bear populations.

Hunting season throughout the New England region helps to regulate the population of these animals.

However, according to Maine’s moose biologist; Lee Kantar, ticks are being found on dead moose after bleeding them dry. Due to this dramatic decrease in the moose population, last year Maine reduced their moose hunting permits by 1000 people.

Vermont as well has seen a significant drop in their moose population as well forcing the state to reduce their hunting permits as well.

As of January 2014, New Hampshire began a four monitoring of 80-90 moose to determine just how rapid the moose population has and still is declining. When one of the collared moose dies, the collar stops transmitting information which allows the scientists and biologists to determine the exact cause of death of each moose.

The moose population in Vermont has decreased by nearly a half of what it was less than a decade ago in 2005 while the population in New Hampshire has shrunk more than 3,000.

While the moose population may currently be going down in some areas of New England, the bear and deer population appear to be on the rise. During the 20^th century the deer population was down to several hundred in Massachusetts; now however the population of the white-tailed deer tops 85,000.
Maine’s annual bear hunt began in August which the state hopes will reduce the growing population of bears. It has been determined by Maine officials that the hunters will need to kill between 3,500 to 4,500 bears annually to control the population; that is between five hundred to a thousand five hundred more than the past decade’s average.

 Despite the increase of the deer population in Vermont, the number of hunters in the state has declined 24.4 percent since the 1980’s.

In spite of the rapid increasing population of bears, there has been a push by the Humane society in Maine to ban certain types of bear hunting making it illegal to bait, trap and hunting the bears with dogs.

Those pulling for this law to pass, believe that the baiting, trapping and dogs are an unethical way to hunt the bears.  If this effort succeeds, the already increasing bear population will continue to increase at alarming numbers, forcing Maine to reconsider a new way to regulate the population.

The growth in the population may be related to the increase of forest land within the New England region with the decline of farming in the New England region, particularly New Hampshire; the unused farm land becomes overgrown with forestation. The over grown farm land creates more habitats for the herd animals causing a population growth.