12 feet snow in two days…

[Panhandler80]

Looks like SE Alaska is about to (or recently was) dumped on. I know heavy snow can take its toll on moose populations. What’s worse on them… the cumulative amount over course of winter, a super heavy fall this this one, or just the duration of time that an abundance of snow is on the ground?

I guess it’s a combination of inability to access browse, and exhaustion and it’s influence on predation. Which aspect you think kills more moose? I guess they really go hand in hand. Can’t eat = less energy = more likely to freeze / starve / be eaten / or be eaten AS a moose starves or freezes.

 

[HutchWV]

nature is a crazy thing

 

[ColeyG]

I think all of these things can contribute to a "hard winter" for moose. The worst examples of large-scale winter kill I have heard of have been due to a combination of a deep spring snow pack, and then a melt-freeze cycle in the spring that leads to a persistent breakable crust on top of the snow.

The animals are already taxed from dealing with deep snow and tough travel all winter and then it get harder for them while also allowing predators, wolves primarily, to run them down on top of the crust.

A pilot friend counted 160 moose carcasses in one river valley in the southern AK Range a few years ago when this cycle set up in the spring.

 

[chinook907]

Along with what ColeyG shared above, snow depth itself seems key to winterkill by starvation.

It seems in general when snow depth gets up to about their withers & above, you start seeing death from starvation a few weeks later, and it continues.

Basically the energetic cost of the movement needed to browse becomes higher than the energy gained from the browse itself, and they begin to burn reserves at an unsustainable rate.

I've seen a fair bit of it. One area I lived there was a significant winterkill every 3-5 years. Usually it was mostly that years calves that were affected.

 

[Mainejohn]

Looks like SE Alaska is about to (or recently was) dumped on. I know heavy snow can take its toll on moose populations. What’s worse on them… the cumulative amount over course of winter, a super heavy fall this this one, or just the duration of time that an abundance of snow is on the ground?

I guess it’s a combination of inability to access browse, and exhaustion and it’s influence on predation. Which aspect you think kills more moose? I guess they really go hand in hand. Can’t eat = less energy = more likely to freeze / starve / be eaten / or be eaten AS a moose starves or freezes.

Wow

 

[AKPA18]

FWIW it looks like most of the moose are not in deep snow at all. Assuming mostly rain below 2500' Higher stuff looks plenty deep.