hunting9 spun

hunting9 spun

By coordinated drives by various-sized hunting groups within the Kirov region, we discuss outcomesof hunting moose. We report the optimum dimensions of a hunting brigade, its advantages overhunting by individuals or by small groups, and the chance for selective harvest by age and sexclasses.

Keywords: moose hunting, forest-taiga, hunting brigade, hunting season, licensed harvest, selectiveharvest

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In the forest-taiga zone, the main trouble with moose management is the selective harvest in theoptimum quantity of moose instead of the population in general. Vast forested hunting groundswithin the northern regions of Russia and, especially, roadless servings of Siberia allow it to be verydifficult to manage moose for sustained yield. Access by helicopters to remote moose huntinggrounds continues to be considered within the press by conservation and game managementorganizations, but is cost-prohibitive.

The Kirov region is found in central and southern taiga and broad-leaved forest zones. Only smallislands of forests appear in southern areas of the Kirov. Moose hunting is far more successful therein comparison to the northern areas, in part, because of better forest and habitat roads. Access isdifficult and harvest quotas usually are not achieved, though within the northern regions, moose

numbers are greater. Inside the forest and forest-taiga zone of Russia, moose hunting is amongst themost prestigious and favorite activities.

In addition to the sporting interest, hunting provides the opportunity to generate profits and harvestquality meat. Moose are hunted under sporting and commercial licenses. A sporting license costs150 rubles (l US$ 29 Russian rubles) for hunting a bellowing male and 75 rubles for just about anymoose after 1 October. An industrial license costs 40 rubles for the adult moose and 20 rubles to geta calf.

All age ranges of animals are hunted and calves compose 20% from the harvest. Meat of moosetaken under sporting licenses is one of the hunter. Under a commercial license, moose meat isshipped to an investing network at a price of 1.5-1.7 rubles per kg. In a few regions, a hunter maysell meat with the list price of three.5 rubles per kg. Especially for urban ones because meat isscarce in Russia, those terms are incredibly popular with hunters. A single hunter or small sets of 2-3 sniper scope hunters get 1-2 licenses for moose hunting. It would appear that this sort of approachmakes moose hunting offered to most hunters but leads to undesirable harvest selection. Mosthunters with 1-2 licenses try to take large animals, especially healthy adult females. 1 or perhaps 2orphaned calves may well not survive when there is no license for taking calves. Glushkov (1985)estimated which every year after having a hunting season in the Kirov, no less than 400 moosecalves were orphaned and many had died by the end of winter.

Hunters use private or rented vehicles for transportation to moose hunting areas. All-terrain vehiclesare essential since it is often impossible to attain hunting grounds by car. Hunters usually usevehicles like "Niva," "LuAZ," "UAZ," or "GAZ-66" and "Ural" for brigades. When you are travelingalong snowy areas, hunters use "Buran" and "Icar" snowmobiles.

STUDY AREA

Our study area was located in the research-experimental hunting grounds (65,800 ha) of your All-Union Research Institute of Game Management and Fur Farming in Kirov. You will find 60 membersof our institute's hunters collective. Through the hunting season, typically 3 hundred-Four hundredmoose inhabit our hunting ground. Typically 61.7 animals are taken per season; approximately 1moose per one thousand ha. On our hunting ground you will find 40,000 ha of forested areas suitableas moose habitat and approximately 5,000 ha of brushwoods from the river flood plain.

A forest area is divided into quarters of 1 x 2 and two x 2 km in proportions. The hunting groundsare crossed by 2 highways: one for timber trucks is covered with ferroconcrete slabs, one other onea partially asphalted earth road that becomes almost impassable in autumn. Dirt roads and roads fortimber trucks that branch readily available highways become impassable for motor transport in deepsnow.

Hunting seasons typically ran from 1 October to 15 January (188 days). Overhttp://www.y8.com/tags/Sniper 9 years, 556 moose were taken (range 46-80 per year). Hunters weretransported with a "GAZ-66" truck and also tractor. They hunted in 1-2 brigades, which ranged inproportions from 9 to 55 persons.

METHODS

Hunting is conducted on permanent sites. Most hunters are set as shooters and several people (4-6)drive moose to the shooters. Shooting line is invariable, generally speaking. Hunters use smooth-bore guns or carbines of 7.62 and 9 mm caliber. Shooters with guns stand near overgrown moosepaths with little field of vision. Hunters with carbines hunt in open sites, glades and clearings smallmeadows, and fields. They may shoot only from the fixed sectors following strict accident preventionrules. Moose drivers wear orange waistcoats.

Naturally, not all drive is a winner. Sometimes there are no moose. At in other cases, moose passthrough open areas inside the drivers' chain, rush between shooters, or run where there are nohunters. Because with this, apparently the larger the brigade, the higher the probability of shootinga moose. Ideal results were in brigades of 9-15 (around 12) hunters, however. Moose harvest fell1.2-1.5 times because a small brigade is much more mobile and may make more drives daily, whenhunter numbers approached the most. Control of a large brigade is a concern and takes additionaltime for every drive because the actual size of the spot covered increases. The advantages ofdressing and loading harvested animals do not compensate for lost hunting time. Since daylight islimited, hunters in smaller brigades may use twilight hours for dressing, loading, and transportingcarcasses.

The greatest variety of moose is taken in November (198 moose per 38 days of hunting). It willrequire 11 man-days to shoot 1 animal. Even though indices of man-days to take moose usually donot greatly differ throughout the other months (13.3-14.1), November is the preferred month forhunting moose in the Kirov region. Shallow snow depth and frozen ground permit hunters to usetransport vehicles successfully. In October hunting is hampered by lacking moose tracks, and inDecember to January by deep snow, hard frosts, and disturbance from previous hunting.

DISCUSSION

A brigade is preferred over individual hunters or hunting by small groups inside the forest-taiga partof the country. Utilizing a brigade makes it possible to join the hunters' collective, strengthenscooperative spirit among hunters from the forest, serves to purchase hunting skills, regulates theharvest of age and sex groups, and makes renting transport vehicles easier. With this style ofhunting, we harvest 22-32% calves, in comparison to a 20% average in the Kirov region. Thatpermits us to maintain post-harvest moose numbers at a level of 300-400 individuals as well as asteady high yield of moose per are