Impact of wolf hunting policy on moose populations in northern Minnesota

Abstract

An ongoing and politically sensitive aspect of proper ecological stewardship revolves around improving the conditions and health of all of the species in the area of concern including both predator and prey species. Human industrial activities have 20 dramatically reduced the land area available to the native species which has placed stresses and fragility into the ecological web. Maintaining proper ecological dynamics has become a critical aspect of policy initiatives designed to safeguard our natural reserves including the establishment of ecological forests and sanctuaries. Herein we outline our proposal to tackle a central issue in wildlife management: improving our 25 knowledge of predator-prey dynamics that vary both temporally and specially in nonlinear ways. By leveraging techniques pioneered in other disciplines in addition to the traditional methods, we aim to drastically improve our understanding of the Moose-Grey Wolf interaction and to develop a system with applicability in other regions and other species. 30PeerJ PrePrints | http://dx.doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.769v1 | CC-BY 4.0 Open Access |