Moose May Have Been Native To Colorado, Says Study

Despite the widespread belief that moose arrived in Colorado only after the state introduced them to areas near Rocky Mountain National Park in the late 1970s, a recent study has shown that moose were very likely native to Colorado prior to the mid-1900s. The study was led by an interdisciplinary team of scientists, archivists and tribal cultural heritage leaders and drew on archaeological evidence, historical records and Indigenous knowledge to reconstruct the species’ long-term history in the region.

To get a clearer picture of when moose may have been present in Colorado, researchers examined newspaper archives, archaeological site reports, scientific journals, museum collections and photo archives to determine where and when moose were present in Colorado. They also reviewed archaeological evidence from northwest Colorado, including moose specimens dating back thousands of years to the early Holocene.

“The scholarly approach of joining Indigenous knowledge with historical accounts, archaeology and paleontology, ‘shows the power of multiple independent lines of evidence converging on the conclusion that moose were part of southern Rocky Mountain ecosystems long before modern reintroductions,’” said study co-author Jonathan Dombrosky.

One of the biggest challenges faced by the researchers during the study was how to crawl through Colorado’s sprawling archaeological record. “Like many western states and many parts of the world, the archaeological record isn’t a neatly organized database,” explained lead author William Taylor, a University of Colorado Boulder associate professor of anthropology and CU Museum curator of archaeology. "It's often a chaotic compilation of dusty old books, partially published white papers, just a lot of resources kind of floating around out there, so you have to turn over a lot of rocks to find what you need.”

A key aspect of the research was pairing the work with Indigenous histories, including oral traditions about moose from across the region, which helped to fill in some of the gaps in other sources.

Crystal C’Bearing, a study co-author and Northern Arapaho Tribal Historic preservation officer, noted that among the Northern Arapaho, for example, "the moose is considered a valued commodity among the Tribe.” She added that societies within the Northern Arapaho "utilize many animals, including moose, in their clothing, society items and regalia. This tradition continues today."

Ultimataly, the study’s results may change how wildlife managers think about managing modern ecosystems, which have been destabilized by major changes in the last two centuries, including the removal of natural predators.

The findings don’t mean that changes to mountain ecosystems should be ignored, Taylor and his colleagues emphasized. Instead, they argue that moose impacts should be understood through a deeper ecological and historical view, especially in national parks where many processes that once shaped large herbivore populations have been altered.

“Rocky Mountain National Park is dealing with ecological impacts from moose, but treating moose as a non-native species changes which management responses seem justified," says study co-author John Wendt of New Mexico State University. "When modern park systems operate without these regulating processes, high impacts don't necessarily mean that an animal is ecologically out of place. They may be a sign that our management frameworks themselves should be reconsidered."