A popular moose hunt near Alaska's population center closed Tuesday after bowhunters took eight bulls — including four in the 24 hours — before the Alaska Department of Fish and Game issued an emergency order.
The registration permit bowhunt in the Eklutna Lake Management Area of Game Management Unit 14C northeast of Anchorage was intended to be limited to four bulls, but saw "higher-than-anticipated harvest … over the weekend," according to Cory Stantorf, the assistant Anchorage area state wildlife biologist.
The hunt opened Sept. 6.
The eight bulls taken was the most in at least four years — perhaps ever, said Fish and Game Wildlife biologist Dave Battle. Two were killed last year, four in 2014 and three in 2013.
"We don't like to see a harvest that is this much higher than what we have set as the maximum allowable harvest for an area," Battle said. "This is the type of risk we have to take with registration hunts — when people have three days to report, and you have a weekend where a lot of hunters get out, this sort of thing can happen.
"Moose are not as sensitive to overharvest as, for instance, goats, and in the grand scheme of moose management in 14C, four extra bulls taken out of one drainage won't break us."
Fish and Game estimated 80 moose were in the area, including 18 bulls, when the last aerial count took place in 2013. The Eklutna moose are not an isolated population, but rather part of the larger population in GMU 14C.
"Weather conditions the last two winters have precluded flying surveys, but harvest and road-kill numbers have remained relatively steady, indicating the population is unlikely to have decreased substantially," Stantorf wrote in the order.
Added Battle: "If anything, based on this year's Eklutna harvest, the population could have increased — but the increased harvest could also be a result of a different distribution on the landscape than in past years, which could be based on weather, food supply, (and other factors)."
Due to its proximity to more than a quarter-million Alaskans, the hunt is among Southcentral's more popular bowhunts even though "Eklutna is known to be a very tough, low success-rate hunt," Battle said. Last year, 191 people hunted and two bulls were killed.