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DEH CHO
As hunters in the Deh Cho are preparing for the upcoming fall hunt, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is asking them to take along a moose-sampling kit. During the sixth biennial Dehcho Wildlife Workshop in Oct. 2012, participants from First Nations in the region asked the department to update its information about contaminant levels in moose.

"They just want to know that what they are eating is healthy," said Nic Larter, the department's manager of wildlife, research and monitoring in the Deh Cho.

The department ran its last moose contaminants study between 2004-07. During that time, samples were submitted by hunters from 49 moose, he said.

The department began promoting the updating of the study in February. Despite sending posters and sampling kits to all First Nations in the region, no kits have been returned.

Without samples, the department can't get the data to compare to the first study and determine if anything has changed in the moose population, Larter said.

The department received substantial funding from the territorial government for the study this year. Lab fees can cost upwards of $300 per sample and if the funding isn't utilized, it may not be available in future years, he said.

Larter also said this is a good time to be looking at the moose population. With all of the forest fires in the region, people will have questions about whether or not moose have absorbed anything into their muscle tissue as a result of the fires, he said, adding he doesn't know if the fires have had an effect.

This is also a good time to look at moose because in a number of years the population will likely increase, he said. As the areas that were burned by the forest fires begin to regenerate, willows will reach a stage where they will be creating plenty of food for moose, which in turn will lead to more births of twin moose.

When the study is updated for a third time in approximately six more years, the results can be compared to the ones gathered now to see if anything has changed, said Larter.

"We may see something is different, we may not," he said.

Each sampling kit contains plastic bags that are labelled for each part, a pencil and a sampling data sheet on which to record information such as where and when the moose was harvested.

Hunters will be paid $75 for each completed kit, which includes the front teeth, one entire kidney with the fat, a piece of liver and a piece of muscle each about eight centimeters square, an ankle bone with marrow and a sample of fecal pellets.

The department realizes that kidneys are a delicacy, so $50 will be paid for kits that don't have the kidney included.

Kits should be frozen after the samples are taken. Hunters can contact their band or the department to have completed kits picked up.

The department is particularly hoping to get samples from Trout Lake, which wasn't involved in the original study because the First Nation was busy with work related to caribou. That means there is no baseline data for that area, said Larter.

Cadmium, a naturally-occurring heavy metal, is one of the primary contaminants the study will look for. Due to high cadmium levels found in the original study, a public health advisory was issued advising people to only eat one serving of kidney from a Mackenzie Valley moose every two months and one serving of liver per week.

As a precaution, people were asked to stop eating the kidneys of moose from the Mackenzie Mountains all together.

It would be hard for people to eat the maximum suggested servings, particularly of liver, said Larter.

In general, moose in the Deh Cho have low levels of contaminants and a low prevalence of diseases and are a healthy country food choice, he said.

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