Researchers find a reaction to a decline in mousse inhabitants in Northwestern Ontario

Mousse was once a familiar view in the forests around Thunder Bay. But those philosophy is now very rare.

Brent Patterson, a senior research scientist from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry, is part of a team that is trying to understand why. In the last two decades, in many parts of Northwestern Ontario, the population has fallen by up to 50 percent in the population, and in the area around Thunder Bay.

The Ministry of Patterson is a co-Leide on the Mousse project that is putting a tracking collar with GPS on animals.

Patterson said, “They send us places through the satellite system so that we can get space in real time and keep the mouses track.”

And if a mousse dies, the team will also get an alert – quite quickly.

He said, “We can have a dispatcher crew and we can get out on the ground, which exactly what happened, or what was happening around that death within a few hours, can investigate.”

According to Patterson, the final survey conducted in Wildlife Management Unit 13, around 13,000 square kilometers around Thunder Bay, about 1700 mousse was shown in the area.

But the provincial objective for that area will be between 3300 and 4400, he said.

Patterson said, “There was a significant decline in that area.”

Pay attention to calves

While the project did not see the loss of any mousse during the winter season, some mortality has been seen in the last few weeks, which Patterson said was surprising.

He said, “You think things are now getting green, and we are coming out of winter – you think things should be seen,” he said.

While adult survival rate is usually quite high, the same rates are low for calves.

“When you look at the number of calves that are arising, the number of vs. calves that are still alive with their mothers in the fall and then again in winter, it’s quite low,” he said. “We are particularly interested in what is happening in those calves.”

Patterson said that the immediate cause of death for most mousse is likely to be from hunters like Wolf or Bear. But the team is trying to look more closely on other factors that can make it easier for those hunters to find and catch mousse calves – factors that can for example include habitat landscapes.

Call for ‘overall review of mousse management’

Mark Rekman, Ontario is calling for the “overall review of mousse management” at Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH).

He said, “This requires the implementation of bears and wolf prediction, parasites and effects of diseases, evaluating housing capacity and current forest management practices on the mousse population,” he said. “More participation and sharing information with indigenous communities to share information that rely on healthy mouses population.”

As the mousse population continues to struggle, it means “low hunting opportunities and tremendous socio-economic benefits that provide mousse hunting,” said Rakeman.

“Many mousse hunters I speak, they are losing confidence in the ability of the government to meet their mousse management goals.”

Meanwhile, about a hundred mousse is now fitted with a tracking collar through the MNRF tracking project, and some will also have a video on the collar.

Patterson said that what is behind the decline will take a few years before there is a more definite answer.