SURVIVAL RATES OF SHIRAS MOOSE (ALCES ALCES SHIRASI) IN COLORADO
Abstract
Survival rates of 75 radio-collared moose (Alces alces shirasi) (42 females and 30 females), >6 months of age when captured in northcentral Colorado, were measured from 1992 through 1995. Individual animals were monitored for up to 4 yrs. Forty-seven radio-collared moose, including 28 females and 19 males, died during the study. Mortality causes an proportion of deaths included legal harvest (76%), illegal kill (15%), auto collisions (2%), and other causes (7%). Annual survival estimates [proportion alive at yr’s end excluding fate unknown (unexplained signal loss), legal, and illegal harvest] for all age and sex categories combined were, 0.95, 1.00, 0.94 and 1.00 for 1992 - 1995, respectively. a 95% confidence interval for the non-hunting related, pooled survival rate was 0.967±0.031. High non-hunting related survival rates suggest that managed sport hunting is the most viable method for maintaining the Colorado moose population imbalance with available habitat.
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