moose compares to a recalculated estimate of 12,689 for 1961 and is undoubtedly 

 the highest kill on record for the Province. 



This year the method of obtaining estimates of harvest and hunter success 

 was revised slightly, and for the first time, an accurate estimate of the number of 

 moose taken by those hunters who failed to forward information on their hunt 

 is available. In recent years, studies have been carried out in several districts to 

 compare the success of reporting hunters as opposed to those hunters who failed 

 to forward information on their hunt. The percentage of the total kill which has 

 been reported and the percentage of the sample which has been returned through- 

 out the period in which returns were received have been plotted for those districts 

 obtaining a high proportion of sample returns. These studies indicate that success- 

 ful hunters are much more apt to contribute information concerning their hunt 

 v/ithout prompting while those hunters, delinquent in sending in their reports, 

 are often unsuccessful. For instance, it has been found that approximately 86% 

 of the total harvest has been reported when only 75% of sample returns has 

 been received. 



Fortunately, the proportion of successful and nonsuccessful moose hunters 

 who report api>ears to be the same across the Province, and since the bias is a 

 constant one, accurate estimates of the total kill can be made. This is particularly 

 important in those districts which do not get a high percent return of their sample. 

 The kill in these districts has been over-estimated in the past to a degree directly 

 proportional to the percentage of hunters failing to make a return. 



To provide the most accurate information, the new method has been used 

 to recalculate resident harvest information for the past three years, 1959 through 

 1961; this information is contained in Table no. 4 



Although all 1962 data have been calculated using the new system, recal- 

 culation of non-resident data prior to 1962 is impossible because of previous 

 methods of obtaining this information. For this reason, the statistics concerning 

 the kill and hunter success of non-residents for 1962 can not be compared on 

 the same basis with similar data for previous years. 



The best moose hunting the Province has to offer still lies north and west of 

 Lake Superior in the western moose management region. All but one of the 

 districts located from the Manitoba boundary to Geraldton had better resident 

 hunting success in 1962 compared to the previous year. Success fell in Sioux 

 Lookout District in 1962, as the district staff predicted before the season opened. 

 Water levels in the Sioux Lookout District were extremely high, moose watering 

 areas were abundant and thus moose were observed less frequently in the usually 

 exposed locations along the waterways. 



Kenora District had the best hunting in the Province for both residents and 

 non-residents with success rates of 51.1 and 67.7% respectively. Fort Frances 

 residents enjoyed 44.1% success while resident success for Port Arthur and 

 Geraldton was 33.1 and 38.0% respectively. Non-resident success for these 

 Districts was somewhat better than for residents as shown in Table no. 3. 



Unusually warm weather during the first part of the season made hunting 

 difficult in the northern portions of the Province. Locker plants were filled to 

 capacity and many hunters were hard pressed to save their moose meat; the total 

 kUl was undoubtedly lower because of weather conditions; the unseasonable 

 weather also changed the temporal distribution of the kill, particularly that of 

 resident hunters. In Sioux Lookout, 56% of the total kill was taken during the 

 first two weeks in October, compared to 61% obtained in the same period in 1961 

 and in Kapuskasing District, although the season opened on September 15, only 



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