Counting moose in the moose viewing capital of Colorado
WALDEN, Colo. — Early morning makes for the perfect time to see one of the most significant and dangerous mammals in North America — moose. About 20 miles south of the Wyoming border, a few Colorado Parks and Wildlife employees recently conducted the final helicopter ride in a three-year survey to better understand the moose population in the North Park area of Colorado.
“This is probably the densest area of moose in the state,” said Ellen Brandell, a wildlife researcher with CPW and leader of the study, and who holds a doctorate in ecology.
Brandell, along with other CPW employees, took off from the small Walden-Jackson County Airport the morning of May 4, armed with recent GPS data and a telemetry device to find the moose Brandell helped collar three years ago.
The study required Brandell to take this aerial survey of moose and their calves three times a year for three years. They started with 70 collared moose, and the goal is to understand the survival rates of moose calves in their first year of life, which will help CPW better understand the moose population in North Park and how much hunting to allow.
Brandell said the study stemmed from an observation that moose have lower than expected pregnancy rates in the area. She said some female moose are skipping one in three years of being pregnant which is typically an indication the animal is above their carrying capacity for the area.
Colorado is home to more than 3,000 moose. The animals are most common in the North Park area. Eric VanNatta, a CPW terrestrial wildlife biologist out of Steamboat, said the agency tries to maintain a population of about 500 to 600 moose in the region. He joined Brandell for this recent moose and calf survey.
In 1978, wildlife experts transferred 24 moose from Wyoming and Utah to the North Park area. The large swath of land between the Park Range and Medicine Bow Mountains is ripe with good food and living conditions for moose, including many river riparian zones with willow for them to eat. The moose flourished.
In 1995, the Colorado legislature declared Walden, the only incorporated town in Jackson County, the moose-viewing capital of the state, a move that changed the trajectory of the small town.
“The biggest thing was to capitalize on that to help the struggling community, which it did. Huge,” said Nadia Louise “Tootie” Crowner, Walden’s mayor at the time.
Now 82, Crowner seems to know everything — and everyone — in Walden. In addition to serving as mayor, she ranched for more than 20 years, worked as a truck driver, and she currently works with the Road and Bridge department for Jackson County.
She knows how the wildlife has kept this town afloat since the 90s.
“Huge part of what happens with the wildlife and recreation up here is the money that's created from the sales tax in this town,” said Crowner.
However, Crowner is among some in Walden who believe the moose are not coming around as much as they did a few years ago.
“Back in the day, you guys could have a seat right out here on this porch and watch [moose] go down Main Street,” Crowner said.
Crowner believes this year’s historically dry winter and the reintroduction of gray wolves have limited moose sightings.
Three years ago, CPW first released a batch of gray wolves on public land in Grand County. It was part of a gray wolf restoration effort narrowly approved by Colorado voters in a 2020 ballot initiative. Most of the support for reintroduction came from populous Front Range counties, as opposed to the counties in the western part of the state where the wolves would be reintroduced.
“It was very hard for the ranchers and the livestock, and it's been a huge adjustment, ” said Crowner. “I think the hardest part among the people in my world that I travel around a lot in this community is the fact that we didn't have any say in it.”
A recently released annual report on gray wolves in Colorado showed there were 43 confirmed wolf kills of livestock or domesticated animals in the last year. Of those, 19 were cattle, one was a working dog, and 23 were sheep. CPW also approved more than $700,000 in compensation for missing sheep or cattle.
The report also included a map showing the distribution of wolves over the past year based on the watershed they were reported in. Walden and North Park is in the middle of the area with the most wolves tracked in the last year.
Part of the moose and calf study Brandell is heading is asking the question about wolves.
“We want to understand calf recruitment because there's a chance that wolves are going to predate or select for calves, as those are going to be the most vulnerable in the population,” said Brandell.
Otherwise, wolves tend not to go for moose, according to Will Deacy, a large mammal ecologist at Rocky Mountain National Park.
“The reason is thought to be that they're just more difficult prey — they're larger, they're more dangerous for wolves. And so if they have other choices, like elk and mule deer, then they tend to pass on moose,” Deacy said.
Still, the presence of wolves and their impact on the wildlife in the North Park area is to be determined.
“The wolf population in Colorado is too small and too new to the landscape to draw conclusions about the long-term effects of restoration,” a CPW spokesperson said in a statement. “As the program progresses we hope to better understand the impacts of wolves on the flora and fauna of Colorado, as well as how human perspectives about wolf restoration change as wolves establish a self-sustaining population.”
Brandell said their first flight Monday was successful. They spotted 83 moose in two hours. Fifteen to 20 of those were ones who were collared. She still has to analyze the data from the study, which may have to wait until the winter because of other projects she’s involved in — focusing on wolves and their prey that take place this summer.
“But I will say I think there is some spatial patterning that I've noticed over the past three years of doing this study, and it seems like there's a higher cow calf ratio over on the west side of the park versus, the southeast side of the park. That's what I'm seeing so far,” said Brandell.
Crowner and others in Walden hope people will still come out to the area to see moose and other wildlife.
“My belief is yes, we have ups and downs. We always have and we'll be fine,” she said.
CPW encourages safety when viewing moose. VanNatta recommends staying at least 50 to 100 yards away from the animal and to keep all dogs on leashes, as they can often trigger a defensive reaction from moose.
“If their ears go back or if their hackles rise up, that's probably a good indicator that you're too close,” VanNatta said. “You should back off.”
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