Moose cull opponent spots just 5 moose on North Mountain ahead of cull
Dennis Day flew over the mountain this week and says he only say 5 moose
A man from Cape North, Cape Breton is not giving up in his effort to convince Parks Canada to cancel a planned moose cull in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
Hunting guide Dennis Day believes the moose population is down on North Mountain, where the cull will take place this month. Parks Canada disagrees.
Now, Day has hired a plane to count the animals himself.
Parks Canada claims there's a "hyper-abundance" of moose on North Mountain and that they're eating the new growth trees. It says many forest areas are turning to grassland.
Day said he spent an hour Wednesday flying over over North Mountain.
"We counted five moose and five moose only," he said. "The five that we spotted ... there was no problem spotting them at all. Very few trees. It's pretty well all open barrens up there."
Beginning Nov. 9, Mi'kmaq hunters will be allowed to take between 35 and 40 moose in a 20-square-kilometre section of the mountain.
Day said he will contact Parks Canada with his latest findings.
"Hopefully we will get [the cull] postponed until they do some more studies," he said. "I don't know where they're going to find the 40 moose. We couldn't find them up there."
The Unima'ki Institute of Natural Resources says Day's information does not change its plans for the hunt.
"I'm not trying to take anything away from the survey Mr. Day and his pilot have done but I'm used to a scientific method," said Clifford Paul, the coordinator of the Moose Management Initiative.
"A lot of the flights that are done to do the moose surveys, it includes surveys on the ground, pellet counts. It also includes cow-calf surveys in the spring, you know, the survivals."
Paul said any moose killed by Mi'kmaq hunters will be brought back to their communities and shared with local families, food banks and Feed Nova Scotia.