The 1961 Moose Hunt In Ontario 



Nearly 45,000 moose licences were sold in Ontario in 1961. This was an 

 increase of about 24% over the 1960 sales. The moose harvest increased by 

 11.6% bringing the total estimated kill to 13,773 moose. There was a slight 

 decrease in hunter success from 33.3% in 1960 to 30.1% in 1961. The lower 

 hunter success seems to have been due to poor weather conditions for hunting 

 throughout the eastern two-thirds of northern Ontario. The rutting season ended 

 earlier than usual leaving the hunters only one or two days of moose calling 

 before the moose failed to respond. Unusually high water conditions added to 

 the problems of hunters by allowing moose to reach the water without coming 

 into the open. Despite these difficulties, many more moose could have been 

 taken if hunters had been able to get away from the over-crowded roadways into 

 the almost completely unhunted interior. 



Table No. 1 



1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 



10,099 15,890 19,262 26,295 29,780 36,160 44,752 



The number of moose licences sold in Ontario has increased each year for 

 the past seven years, as shown in Table No. 1. The increase this year was 23.8%. 

 The number of licences sold to residents in 1961 was 38,977, an increase of 

 23.2% over 1960. The sale of non-resident licences increased by 37.1% to 5,775. 

 The experimental moose-deer licence in southern Ontario was this year discon- 

 tinued. The increase in the moose herd south of the French and Mattawa rivers 

 warranted the extension of the regular moose licence to cover hunting in the 

 south. The experimental moose-deer licence was originally set up as a camp 

 licence. Each licence would cover the hunting of seven or eight men. The exten- 

 sion of the regular resident licence to southern Ontario meant that each hunter 

 was expected to purchase his own licence if he intended to hunt moose. This 

 change in ruling, plus the reduction in price from $21.00 to $10.00, brought 

 about a 207% increase in the number of licences used in southern Ontario. 



The information about the numbers and percent success of resident hunters 

 collected by the Fish and Wildlife staffs in each district, is summarized in Table 

 No. 2. Since it was not possible to obtain a complete list of the names and 

 addresses of hunters, a correction factor was determined for the 1,157 licencees 

 which were not available for sampling. On the assumption that the unsampled 

 hunters had the same success as the sampled hunters, an additional 318 moose 

 were added to the 9,458 calculated from the samples of resident hunters. This 

 gave a total estimate of 9,776 for the number of moose killed in northern Ontario 

 by resident hunters. The 7,227 resident hunters from the samples, who returned 

 questionnaires indicating that they had hunted in northern Ontario, reported a 

 success of 27.5%. This was a slight decrease from the 30.5% success reported 

 in 1960. The largest number of resident hunters in one district was reported from 

 Port Arthur District where 3,317 hunters killed 834 moose. The Sioux Lookout 

 District reported the highest resident hunter success, 67.0%. 



The non-resident hunter success, shown in Table No. 3, remained higher 

 than resident hunter success, but it was down from 1960 by about the same 

 amount as resident hunter success in northern Ontario. In 1960, the non-resident 

 hunter success was 66.1%, but in 1961, it dropped to 57.8%. Kenora District 



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