Summary
It's an eat-or-be-eaten way in the natural world and the food chain often isn't pretty. Fortunate are the predators at the top of that hierarchy in the sense they don't have many other natural predators other than humans. Ungulates, or hoofed mammals, are down the chain a step or two. And despite being the largest ungulate on this continent the lonely ol' moose has the odds stacked against their survival in some locations from the start.
The calving season is underway in Alaska and its moose population will more than double in the next couple weeks. Alaska state wildlife biologists estimate 120,000 moose calves will be born by early June. That's the good news, from both a moose and predator perspective. The bad news, at least for the moose, is that wolves, black and grizzly bears and a few other causes will kill about 90,000 calves before they survive one year.See the full content of this document
Extract
Bad to Be an Alaskan Moose Right Now
"Out of those 120,000 calves, about 80,000 are killed by predators and another 9,000 die from other causes," said Rod Boertje, Fairbanks moose research biologist. "Over 40,000 will be killed in the first six weeks."
Drowning is the most prevalent non-predatory death factor among moose calves. They also die from sickness, starv...See the full content of this document
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