OF MOOSE AND MAN: THE PAST, THE PRESENT, AND THE FUTURE OF HUMAN DIMENSIONS IN MOOSE RESEARCH

Abstract

There is a gap between a growing interest to study the moose/human interface (MHI) and the actual effort made to understand this human dimension (HD) component in moose research. A content analysis of Alces 1974-2001 showed that the relative contribution of HD-papers increased until 1991 but decreased thereafter. Of 66 HD-articles published, 68% of the papers covered how “man affects moose” with hunting and collisions the single most important topics, and 15% were about “values” (economic and attitudes). Outside Alces, articles appeared that were underrepresented in Alces or in the Proceedings of the North American Moose Conference and Workshop. I identify four priority HD-areas for future studies: (1) how do people react to changing moose densities and distributions?; (2) which management alternatives are acceptable for managing the urban and suburban MHI and what makes them acceptable?; (3) how important are moose to non-consumptive users?; and (4) what are the population dynamics and attributes of the consumptive moose user and what makes moose important to consumptive users? A scientific challenge is to further merge ecological and social science to integrate this in management strategies.