BANGOR DAILY NEWS • July 9, 2024
This fall it will have been four years since Maine wildlife managers introduced the so-called Adaptive Unit moose hunt in Wildlife Management District 4. This was an experimental hunt, using moose hunting permits to deliberately reduce moose densities, and, in so doing, trying to reduce winter tick populations that were decimating moose calves. Leading up to the experimental hunt the number of calves born each year had dropped significantly since the 1990s. In the worst year, 87 percent of collared calves died of tick infestations in the spring of 2022. Today, the moose calf mortality in the test area, WMD 4, was at 8 percent for the spring of 2024.