New Brunswick is the home of many moose. The number of moose in New Brunswick, can change depending on the time of day and where you’re counting them. As a general rule, there are between 500-1000 moose that live in the province. Keep in mind, this is an estimate and not hard numbers because it’s difficult to count their population accurately. There’s a lot of places where you can find moose and a lot of places you can’t. They are most often in the northern part of the province and that is why that is where most of the moose population is located.
Moose are difficult to count for various reasons. A large reason is that there are some areas where it’s simply not possible to count them because they are protected land by Parks New Brunswick. There also isn’t a way to count all of them from land because they spend a large portion their time in water. Moose like to hang out in lakes, rivers, and streams because they get their food there: water plants, small fish and bugs. Moose are very good swimmers, they can swim up to 45 kilometres per hour and they can hold their breath underwater for up to 15 minutes.
The northern part of New Brunswick is home to the largest population of moose and that is because it’s the bogiest part of New Brunswick. It was classified as an endangered habitat in 1975 because there was such a low population of moose and it is only now, in 2011-2012 that you start to see a large growth in the number of moose living there.
The southern part of the province, east of Moncton, doesn’t have a very large population of moose because there is less bogey areas and fewer lakes for them to call home. It’s possible that their population is small and you would need to count by satellite but that would be tough.
Mating season can be hard to count because you can’t easily tell where they are humping. The best place is on the trail but in order to do that you would have to be there during the winter months and when it’s too cold for them to breed your chances are not very good. There are ways though of knowing if they are breeding or not by studying breeding habits. It’s very hard to get them in the same shot together so that you could count from the same place with them in the shot.
It is possible to count the moose population by satellite and that gives you a pretty good idea of their population but it’s not always right on.
As of February 17, 2012 there were an estimated 1020 moose living in New Brunswick (Environment Canada). That’s a little bit lower than what they have estimated before this date because there was a harsh winter that has taken its toll on their population. It also depends on where you catch them because if they are in different areas they will be at different levels of health and maturity and that affects the overall number.
