Moose cull opponent spots just 5 moose on North Mountain ahead of cull

A man fromCape North, Cape Bretonis not giving up inhis effortto convinceParks Canada tocancel a planned moose cullin the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

Hunting guide Dennis Day believes the moose population is down on North Mountain, where the cull will take place this month.Parks Canada disagrees.

Now, Day has hired a plane to count the animals himself.

Parks Canada claims there'sa"hyper-abundance" of moose on North Mountain and that they're eating the new growth trees. It says many forest areasare turning to grassland.

Day saidhe spent an hour Wednesdayflying over over North Mountain.

"We counted five moose and five moose only," he said. "The five that we spotted ...therewas no problem spotting them at all. Very few trees. It's pretty well all open barrens up there."

Beginning Nov.9, Mi'kmaq hunters will be allowed to take between 35 and 40 moose in a 20-square-kilometre section of the mountain.

Day saidhe will contact Parks Canada with his latestfindings.

"Hopefully we will get [the cull]postponed until they do some more studies," he said."I don't know wherethey're going to find the 40moose. We couldn't find them up there."

The Unima'ki Institute of Natural Resources says Day's information does not change its plans for the hunt.

"I'm not trying to take anything away from the survey Mr. Day and his pilothave done but I'm used to a scientific method," saidClifford Paul,the coordinator of the Moose Management Initiative.

"A lot of the flights that are done to do the moose surveys, it includes surveys on the ground, pellet counts.It also includes cow-calf surveys in the spring, you know, the survivals."

Paul saidany moose killed by Mi'kmaq hunters willbe brought back to their communities and shared with local families, food banks and Feed Nova Scotia.