Newfoundland is on the verge of losing it's forests, all because of 11,000 moose who can't stop eating

Newfoundland introduced moose for food in the region more than a century ago. Today, about 110,000 of their population are reshaping the island's forests, eradicating them slowly. Initially, the animals had been brought in as a dependable source of meat, but the expansion of the herd has unleashed somewhat of an ecological juggernaut on the island.Moose were first introduced to Newfoundland in 1878 and four more were released in 1904 since officials wanted a new game animal and dependable source of fresh meat. By the 1950s, the herd may have reached about 200,000 animals. Today, provincial estimates put the population closer to 110,000. However, the animals’ extraordinary success also exposed a hard ecological limit, because forests cannot replace young trees and shrubs as quickly as an oversized moose population can eat them.Why the herd explodedMoose are native to Labrador, not the island of Newfoundland. On the island, they faced no other large herbivore with the same dietary needs, while the Newfoundland wolf, their main natural predator, was already close to extinction and disappeared around 1930. Young forests added fuel to the boom. Natural disturbances and later commercial ...