The ugly Bush stain: Sarah Palin, eat your heart out, moose are roaming right out of existence edition

By GottaLaff

Doggone it, don'tcha know, also, because the Second Amendment calls for moose killers to, as you know, have rights among real Americans and sure as shootin', also, because of all that pallin' around, also, too. Global warming? In what respect, Charlie?

But in two decades, the number of antlered, bony-kneed beasts from the North Woods [of Minnesota] has plummeted from 4,000 to fewer than a hundred. [...]

The primary culprit, scientists say, is climate change, which has systematically reduced the Midwest's already dwindling moose population and provoked alarm in Minnesota, where wildlife specialists gathered for a "moose summit" this month in Duluth.

"There's not a lot of opportunity to turn this around," said Mark Lenarz, a wildlife research specialist at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Temperatures tell much of the story. Over the last 40 years in northwest Minnesota, the average winter temperature has risen significantly -- 12 degrees -- and summers are 4 degrees warmer.

Solitary and grumpy, moose have made it clear in their estimated 13,000 years in North America that they hate warm weather.

The concern about the fate of the moose comes as the Bush administration, in its last weeks, is revising regulations in ways that prohibit federal agencies from evaluating the effects of increased global warming on endangered species.

Officially, the moose is not endangered in the U.S. But it is in danger of disappearing from the Midwest, which is the far southern fringe of its range. [...]

"The trends for the past 20 years are pretty clear, and if they keep up there won't be any moose in 50 years," said John Vucetich, a population biologist at Michigan Technological University in Houghton. [...]

Minnesota and Michigan offer separate laboratories that help explain why the moose are dying. Heat, water and parasites play important roles, but temperatures are the trigger. [...]

Moose require shade, water and cool weather, each of which is dwindling in northwest Minnesota, where the moose population struggles among small patches of aspen woods and farmland.

When temperatures rise, the moose have to work harder to obtain food and find places to stay cool. Lenarz said that affects their immune systems, prevents them from putting on more fat in the summer (which they need to get through the winter) and makes them vulnerable to parasites. [...]

Heading north to cooler climes is not an option.

"When moose are in trouble, they don't move. They die," said Rolf Peterson, a research professor at Michigan Tech and chairman of the Minnesota Moose Advisory Committee. [...]

"I don't see the temperature change we're seeing as cyclical. The trend is definitely in one direction," Peterson said.

Destruction and death: The Bush/Palin legacy.