by: Ross Hall
FALL 1988
Road maps in Nova Scotia show 4 large Game Sanctuaries. The Tobeatic, Liscomb, Waverley and Chignecto Game Sanctuaries cover forest areas of 200,200,25, and 85 square miles (520, 520, 65, 220 km2), respectively. Establishing these sanctuaries was not only a major commitment by early governments; it showed a deep commitment to wildlife.
The protection of moose was a major impetus in creating these sanctuaries. The 1931 Lands and Forests Annual Report shows this concern by printing the following in boldface type:
To counter balance this very serious situation (moose tick) three sanctuaries have been established in the province. If the Province of Nova Scotia wishes to retain her stand of moose, it will, therefore, be necessary either to establish more game sanctuaries or to have a closed season on moose over a period of years.
The report referred to the Tobeatic, Liscomb, and Waverley Game Sanctuaries established in 1927, 1928, and 1929, respectively. Interestingly, the reference to "moose tick" referred to experiments in Minnesota by Cahn, Wallace, and Thomas (published in Science, 1932) that suggested a virulent organism called Klebsiella paralytica, and transmitted by the moose tick, Dermacentor albipictus as the cause of "moose disease".
The reason for the strange behaviour of moose and their subsequent deaths was no doubt of great interest to early century sportsmen. I suspect the findings were well covered in newspapers and sporting magazines. Later we would learn of another explanation.
The 1936 Annual Report adds:
...conditions in the sanctuaries are such as to fully warrant their existence, and it is felt that they are serving a very useful purpose in the protection and conservation of game and supplying a considerable surplus to the surrounding territory. It is hoped by the department that more of these sanctuaries will be established in the future, and a selection has been made of a territory comprising the best parts of two locations advocated by the Springhill branch and the Oxford Branch of the Nova Scotia Fish and Game Protective Association.
In 1938 the Chignecto Game Sanctuary was created.
The game sanctuary concept was that game animals, both big and small, would breed, multiply and spread into the surrounding country. There was the further justification that sanctuaries would provide recreation parkland, but I think that the main impetus was to protect the moose. In the early 20th century, hunting, settlement and "moose disease" had placed great pressure on the moose. The public demanded the sanctuaries, and, based on the knowledge of the day, they were a logical management technique.
Sanctuary wardens and an Inspector of Game Sanctuaries were employed. Sanctuary boundaries were tagged (marked) and outlying warden camps built. The sanctuaries were a great experiment in moose management. At the time sportsmen and the Department probably did not regard the endeavour as an experiment and no doubt had high hopes for its success. A closed season on moose in 1938 gave further protection.
IMAGE: The four major Game Sancuaries established in Nova Scotia.
If we may call the sanctuaries an experiment in moose management, what were the results?
With the sanctuaries and the closed season, moose numbers showed a brief recovery. However, by 1948-1951 moose numbers plummeted and moose sickness was again very prevalent. Typical symptoms were loss of fear of man, a weakened and emaciated condition, aimless wandering or refusal to leave a certain place, partial or complete blindness, travelling in circles, drooping of one ear, paralysis and eventually death. It was observed that moose perished in greatest numbers where deer were most plentiful. As deer numbers reached a record high in the late 40s and 50s, moose numbers reached record lows.
The earlier suggestion that moose sickness was caused by ticks was proved incorrect by later experiments and observations. The moose disease puzzle was not solved until 1964, when Dr. Roy Anderson discovered that a nematode (roundworm), Parelaphostrongylus tenuis, was the culprit. The parasite, resembling a white human hair, is harmless in deer, but in moose it damages the central nervous system. P. tenuis has a complicated life history that involves terrestrial snails or slugs that feed on deer dung. Deer or moose become infected when they accidentally ingest the infected snail.
Thus the spoiler to the Game Sanctuary experiment was a tiny worm. Sanctuary boundaries prevented the harvest of moose by man but not mortality inflicted by the brain parasite.
Supposing there was not the P. tenuis complication; would the Game Sanctuary concept have worked? Unfortunately for smaller wildlife, the assumption that surplus animals would move off to surrounding country is wrong. We now know more about the home range sizes of wildlife. A snowshoe hare can be born, live and die without ever leaving a 30-acre (12 ha) area. Moreover, there are many natural mortality factors within and outside a sanctuary that prevent huge population buildups and overflow. A sanctuary boundary controls hunting mortality only.
For larger game animals such as moose and deer, the answer is less clear. Seasonal home ranges for both moose and deer usually do not exceed 2 to 4 square miles (5-10 km2). Deer will travel long distances between summer and winter ranges, and there is perhaps dispersal of younger deer during the two-way migration. A doe birthing will drive off her fawn(s) from the previous year. During the rutting season 1 ½-year-old bucks are apt to disperse because of the antagonism of larger males.
In my work with Cumberland and Colchester counties there was always the assumption that moose and deer were more plentiful in the Chignecto Game Sanctuary than off the sanctuary. In 1984 this idea was tested using a pellet group survey. We compared the moose and deer population on the sanctuary to populations in a large land area (Moose Zone VII) west of the sanctuary. The off-sanctuary population was 1.27 moose and 6.12 deer per sq. mile (0.49 moose and 2.43 deer per km2). On-sanctuary population was 1.2 moose and 7.3 deer per sq. mile (0.48 moose and 2.82 deer per km2). There is perhaps some dispersal of moose and deer from the sanctuaries, but it seems insignificant. In the absence of hunting pressure there are other forms of mortality, such as winter hardship and predation, that prevent excessive population buildup in sanctuaries.
Whether or not our game sanctuaries protected the moose, these lands are today valuable recreational areas. Scouting groups use the Waverley Game Sanctuary, Fishermen go to the Tobeatic and Liscomb sanctuaries and Bowhunters hunt the Chignecto. The objective of creating recreational parkland was achieved.
In September 1988, retired Sanctuary Warden Norby Meldrum and I followed an unused, blazed trail to the Shulie River Warden camp on the Chignecto Game Sanctuary. Mice peered at us from the pantry and a bear had left claw marks on the wooden shingles outside. The front view (now blocked by alders) overlooked the Shulie river Sanctuary boundary. Here the first sanctuary wardens, Jack Goodwin and How Brown, had participated in the moose experiment. A notebook in the camp recorded later visits by wardens John Maloney, John Poplar and Norby. We recorded our visit and left. Once in the forefront of wildlife management technology, the camp remains, "protecting the moose".