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– On the one hand, cows will need to put in energy to regulate their body temperature. Moose adapt to the cold. They don’t thrive in high temperatures, so they get less energy for other things, for example to make milk, says Fredrik Widemo, one of the researchers.
They have studied the sensitive period in May and June, when newborn moose depend on nursing from their mother. If there are a lot of really hot days in May and a little rain in June, the calves weigh less than normal. More die. This is especially clear in Svealand and Götaland.
The cow worsens in milk production., in part due to heat stress and in part because food, for example leaf cover, does not contain as much nutrition during these hot, dry sources and early summers. They have become more common as the weather changes.
– Studies from the US show that moose have declined or even disappeared from the southernmost parts of the range. It is not impossible that, in the long run, we will see a decline in the moose population in parts of southern Sweden, says Fredrik Widemo.
The research is based on hunters’ observations of the number of calves during elk hunting and the slaughter weight of calves over the past 20 years. In Götaland, the average slaughter weight has decreased from around 65kg to 55kg over the period, in Svealand from about 70kg to 60kg and in Norrland from just over 70 to just under 70kg.
In Jönköping county, the hunters for several years he recommended saving well-developed calves, bulls and females. Instead, they are urged to shoot the small animals that they will never reach.
– Of course, it can be a collision for some hunters who “once in a lifetime” have the opportunity to shoot a large bull. I have all the respect for that, but our advice is to focus on small, skinny, bad animals, says Gunnar Lindblad, president of the Swedish Hunters Association in Jönköping county.
