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We discuss outcomes of hunting moose by coordinated drives by various-sized hunting groups withinthe Kirov region. We report the optimum measurements of a hunting brigade, its advantages overhunting by individuals or by small groups, along with the potential for selective harvest by sex andage classes.

Keywords: moose hunting, forest-taiga, hunting brigade, hunting season, licensed harvest, selectiveharvest

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In the forest-taiga zone, the major issue with moose management is definitely the selective harvestfrom the optimum number of moose rather than population by and large. Vast forested huntinggrounds within the northern parts of Russia and, especially, roadless areas of Siberia allow it to bealmost impossible to manage moose for sustained yield. Access by helicopters to remote moosehunting grounds continues to be considered in the press by game and conservation managementorganizations, but is cost-prohibitive.

The Kirov region is positioned in southern and central taiga and broad-leaved forest zones. Onlysmall islands of forests happen in southern portions of the Kirov. In part, as a consequence of betterforest and habitat roads, moose hunting is a lot more successful there than in the northern areas.Within the northern regions, moose numbers are greater, but access is difficult and harvest quotasusually are not achieved. Within the forest and forest-taiga zone of Russia, moose hunting is amongthe most prestigious and favorite activities.

In addition to the sporting interest, hunting provides the opportunity to generate profits and harvestquality meat. Moose are hunted under sporting and commercial licenses. A sporting license costs150 rubles (l US$ 29 Russian rubles) for hunting a bellowing male and 75 rubles for just about anymoose after 1 October. A commercial license costs 40 rubles on an adult moose and 20 rubles for acalf.

All age ranges of animals are hunted and calves compose 20% from the harvest. Meat of moosetaken under sporting licenses is one of the hunter. Within a commercial license, moose meat is

shipped to an investing network at a price of 1.5-1.7 rubles per kg. In certain regions, a hunter maysell meat with the retail price of three.5 rubles per kg. Those terms sniper scope are very alluring tohunters, specifically urban ones because meat is scarce in Russia. An individual hunter or small setsof 2-3 hunters get 1-2 licenses for moose hunting. It appears that this type of approach makes moosehunting available to most hunters but contributes to undesirable harvest selection. Most hunterswith 1-2 licenses try to take large animals, especially healthy adult females. 1 or perhaps 2 orphanedcalves might not exactly survive when there is no license for taking calves. Glushkov (1985)estimated that every year following a hunting season within the Kirov, a minimum of 400 moosecalves were orphaned and a lot had died by the end of winter.

Hunters use private or rented vehicles for transportation to moose hunting areas. All-terrain vehiclesare important because it is often impossible to reach hunting grounds by car. Hunters usually usevehicles like "Niva," "LuAZ," "UAZ," or "GAZ-66" and "Ural" for brigades. When traveling alongsnowy sniper scope areas, hunters use "Buran" and "Icar" snowmobiles.

STUDY AREA

Our study area was located at the research-experimental hunting grounds (65,800 ha) of the All-Union Research Institute of Game Management and Fur Farming in Kirov. There are actually 60people in our institute's hunters collective. Through the hunting season, about 3 hundred-Fourhundred moose inhabit our hunting ground. Around 61.7 animals are taken per season;approximately 1 moose per 1,000 ha. On our hunting ground you will find 40,000 ha of forestedareas suitable as moose habitat and approximately 5,000 ha of brushwoods from the river floodplain.

A forest area is split into quarters of 1 x 2 and 2 x 2 km in proportion. The hunting grounds arecrossed by 2 highways: one of them for timber trucks is protected with ferroconcrete slabs, otherone a partially asphalted earth road that becomes almost impassable in autumn. Dirt roads androads for timber trucks that branch from these highways become impassable for motor transport indeep snow.

Hunting seasons typically ran from 1 October to 15 January (188 days). Over 9 years, 556 moosewere taken (range 46-80 each year). Hunters were transported by a "GAZ-66" truck and alsohttp://www.freegames.net/category/sniper-games.html by tractor. They hunted in 1-2 brigades,which ranged in size from 9 to 55 persons.

METHODS

Hunting is carried out on permanent sites. Most hunters are set up as shooters and many people (4-6) drive moose towards the shooters. Generally speaking, shooting line is invariable. Hunters usesmooth-bore guns or carbines of 7.62 and 9 mm caliber. Shooters with guns stand near overgrownmoose paths with little field of vision. Hunters with carbines hunt in open clearings, glades and sitessmall meadows, and fields. They can shoot only inside the fixed sectors following strict accidentprevention rules. Moose drivers wear orange waistcoats.

Of course, not every drive is successful. Sometimes there are no moose. At in other cases, moosemove through open areas within the drivers' chain, rush between shooters, or run in which there areno hunters. Because of this, it would appear that the greater the brigade, the greater the chance ofshooting a moose. Greatest results were in brigades of 9-15 (about 12) hunters, however. Moose

harvest fell 1.2-1.5 times just because a small brigade is a lot more mobile and can make more drivesevery day, when hunter numbers approached the highest. Control of a large brigade is an issue andtakes much more time for each and every drive because how big the location covered increases. Thebenefits of loading and dressing harvested animals do not compensate for lost hunting time. Sincedaylight is limited, hunters in smaller brigades can make use of twilight hours for dressing, loading,and transporting carcasses.

The very best quantity of moose is consumed November (198 moose per 38 times of hunting). Ittakes 11 man-days to shoot 1 animal. Even though indices of man-days to take moose do not greatlydiffer in the other months (13.3-14.1), November will be the preferred month for hunting moosewithin the Kirov region. Shallow snow depth and frozen ground permit hunters to utilize transportvehicles successfully. In October hunting is hampered by lacking moose tracks, and in December toJanuary by deep snow, hard frosts, and disturbance from previous hunting.

DISCUSSION

A brigade is preferred over individual hunters or hunting by small groups in the forest-taiga portionof the country. By using a brigade assists you to join the hunters' collective, strengthens cooperativespirit among hunters inside the forest, serves to acquire hunting sniper scope skills, regulates theharvest of age and sex groups, and makes renting transport vehicles easier. With this kind ofhunting, we harvest 22-32% calves, in comparison to a 20% average from the Kirov region. Thatpermits us to maintain post-harvest moose numbers at a level of 300-400 individuals as well as asteady high yield of moose per are