Cree people out on the land around Waswanipi, Ouje-Bougoumou or Waskaganish may have noticed increased aircraft activity February 2-20. An aerial survey was updating the estimated moose population in Zone 17.
A previous survey in 2021 confirmed hunters’ concerns by showing an estimated 1,036 moose, a 35% decline since 2009. In response, sport hunting was prohibited in Zone 17 the following year. An annual harvest limit of 104 moose has been allocated entirely to the Cree, according to guaranteed levels stipulated in the JBNQA.
In 2024, the Cree Nation Government introduced a mandatory tag and permit system in this area, with a harvest limit of two moose per trapline and one per family. Big bull moose, females and calves were to be avoided. Hunting at night, with drones or with snowmobiles was prohibited, and all harvest numbers were to be reported to the Cree Trappers’ Association.
The previous survey resulted in occasional conflict with the provincial government. After requesting action for several years, it was only when the CNG planned to independently undertake a survey that Quebec joined the process. Even then, the province didn’t share the preliminary results until fall despite receiving them in mid-summer, which leaders suspected was to allow another sport hunting season.
Closing this hunt raised tensions with Jamesian neighbours, especially after MNA Denis Lamothe made the announcement without Cree knowledge and blamed Waswanipi for not reaching a compromise. This year’s collaboration between the CNG, Waswanipi and the Northern Quebec Regional Wildlife Management Department (MELCCFP) stemmed from working together on a moose habitat quality index project since 2018.
The survey selected areas based on a moose habitat quality index, which ranks habitat according to various characteristics generally preferred by moose. Scanning lines of 10 km spaced 500 metres apart, observers looked for moose tracks in the snow.
The helicopter’s navigator logged observations of tracks and moose yards on an iPad app while directing the pilot. In phase two, the team returned to where activity was observed to search for moose and record their numbers.
“We were lucky with weather this year,” said CNG biologist Adèle Michaud. “The survey took two weeks instead of three, so the provincial government took the opportunity to continue the fieldwork with female moose collaring.”
The collaring project aims to understand how moose are adapting to habitat burned in the 2023 wildfires. Quebec officials retrieved GPS-tracking collars of moose that had been attached less than a year after the fires, then those moose and 10 others were fitted with new collars.
While vegetation growing back a few years after a forest fire is a preferred food source for moose, there is a lack of research on their behaviour immediately following a fire. GPS data extracted from moose collars can provide insights into habitats they gravitate towards, causes of mortality and their distribution across the region.
“That data will be studied in the following years so we can have a better understanding of how moose used burned habitat,” Michaud explained. “To gain knowledge on the exact timeline of that and also the behaviour of how animals move in that territory and how it impacts prey-predator dynamics will be very interesting.”
While it’s too early to draw conclusions from the survey, the team observed considerable use of recently burned habitats by female moose. Michaud alternated with other environment department members Jane Voyageur, Gordon Saganash and Darren Saganash as CNG observers in each aircraft.
There wasn’t room for Cree observers on the collaring flights, which required a qualified field veterinarian and others experienced with administering anaesthesia. After shooting the sleeping darts, the risk of complication was reduced through drugs that can be reversed with an antidote and oxygen supplementation that minimizes side effects and accelerates recovery.
Biologists took precautions to reduce moose stress and risk under a strict animal care protocol. Studies of collar data and calving behaviour found that the anaesthesia doesn’t affect pregnant females or their calves, and that collared females will mate and reproduce. Hunters are asked to leave collared moose undisturbed, while ear tags provide a phone number to call before eating.
Mature female moose have distinct habitat constraints and strategies related to reproduction, so collaring them for behavioural analysis optimizes the limited sample size. Collars have a drop-off mechanism that releases at a fixed time to be recovered in the bush and refurbished for further use.
“The distribution of the collared moose had to be planned to avoid more than one collared moose per trapline,” said MELCCFP biologist Vincent Brodeur. “This capture session proved challenging in the smaller size of the study area that was limited to the fires and their surroundings.”
Finding the moose required a systematic survey of heavily impacted habitat, which enabled the MELCCFP to resample certain plots surveyed in 2021 and add plots near Lake Mistassini north of Zone 17. Sampling sites with various fire impacts improves analysis potential by limiting interpretation bias.
Among the 15 collars installed, five were equipped with cameras that record 18-second videos for each GPS location, recorded every two hours. Seeing through the eyes of the moose reveals their specific behaviour in particular habitats, such as plant species and other features they prefer.
“I’ve seen a couple of clips where you see a female with her two calves, you see them escaping a wolf attack, swimming, the insect boom in early summer and navigating those burnt habitats,” said Michaud.
With population survey results expected as early as next month, the recommended harvest limit could be revised and existing conservation measures revisited. Cree hunters remain concerned about pressures on the moose, including increasing wolf density, poaching and forestry-related habitat degradation.
“I want to ban non-Native sport hunting for moose and caribou,” declared Paul Dixon, tallyman of W-23A, one of Zone 17’s largest traplines. “We’re just counting down so-called big game until there’s nothing left, just Quebec’s industries plundering away. As a hunting society, you’ve got to conserve in these times of troubles.”