Some Estimates of Moose Populations in British Columbia During ...

Table 1.
- 86
This shows the composition of moose harvests
between 1950 and 1970.
The data is incomplete for the
non-resident component of the harvest and the figures
shown do not include the numbers of moose killed in
subsistence hunting (Indians, prospectors, trappers);
illegally (poaching); or accidentally (road kills,
drownings).
Cow moose seasons contributed a female
component to the harvest from 1952 onwards.
It can
be seen that the numbers of moose harvested increased
from 4,129 in 1950 to a peak of 25,717 in 1968.
Generally the moose harvest can be said to have
stabilised since 1961, with numbers around the 20,000
mark, of which approximately 60% were males.
The
population was, therefore, sufficiently large to
sustain such harvests, which represent known mortality,
otherwise a decline in yield due to overharvesting would
have occurred during the period under study.