MOOSE RESEARCH AND SOCIOBIOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT

In view of the urgent need to modernize moose management on sociobiological principles (i.e. towards social welfare), I outline a series of top-priority research projects. Research findings will provide moose managers with reliable indicators of population welfare and socio biological trends. To guarantee validity of these indicators, 3 main objectives should be the basis of any new moose research: (1) the standardization of ecological, morphological, physiological and behavioural methods, (2) control of field data through simulated conditions with confined moose, and (3) a detailed inventory of moose umwelt-parameters. The essential questions concern: maturation processes, sexual behavioru, reproductive capacity of each sex, extrinsic control of popular behaviour, growth, individual fashion fitness, circadian periodicity, neurohormonal mechanisms, immunobiological defences, antlerogenesis and taxonomy