Moose getting ticked off

Infestation may keep moose numbers down

By DENNIS APRILL, Outdoors Columnist

The moose looked a little ragged, typical of an animal transitioning from winter to summer coat. We looked closer to see if that scraggly appearance was truly a seasonal one or the result of something more serious. Let me explain.

My 15-year-old daughter Karalyn and I were in northern New Hampshire on our annual spring moose photo trip. The cow moose we spotted was in a wetland just off Route 145 in Stewartstown Hollow, a few miles north of Colebrook. Quite frankly, I was surprised to see a moose at this spot, not having spotted one here in the past 11 years we’ve been taking these trips.

Moose are almost black, and in the early morning light it would be impossible to get a good photo, so we just watched her splash around before she took off back to the woods.

The day before, Friday, May 31, we had visited with old friends Charles and Ruth Willey who live just across the Connecticut River in Lemington, Vt. Charlie, a retired Vermont Fish and Wildlife Biologist, is one of the top moose photographers in the country with credits in many national magazines and calendars. If anyone knows what is going on with the moose in northeastern Vermont or northern New Hampshire, it would be Charlie.

"The moose numbers in New Hampshire are down, maybe as much as 20 percent," Charlie told us. "It’s supposedly the winter tick infestation. Moose are loaded with ticks, and if some don’t die in the winter they continue to irritate the moose. The animal rubs on trees, and eventually its fur comes off.

"This weakens the moose who may die in the winter." Charlie added, "I’ve heard that 10 of the 40 animals radio-collared by New Hampshire Fish and Wildlife have died as an indirect result of ticks."

Those 40 moose are supposedly representative of the population estimated at 8,000 statewide.

After leaving Charlie and Ruth, Karalyn and I drove over Dixville Notch, past Errol and on to Wilson Mills, Maine, checking out moose hot spots just before dark. This was the procedure we had followed in the past, even stopping for the first time at a state wildlife observation deck near a large wetland just at the foot of Dixville Notch. But we saw nothing.

"Maybe Charlie’s right", I said to Karalyn. "But, seeing as how we’re here anyway, let’s get up at sunrise and make the run north to the Connecticut Lakes."

"I guess so," was Karalyn’s less than enthusiastic reply, the thought of getting up at 4:30 a.m. not an appealing one.

But get up we did, and on Saturday, June 1, we first saw that moose off Highway 145, then photographed and videoed two young cows eight miles north of Pittsburg, as they crossed Route 3 near Coon Brook. A little further on, a deer stood looking at us a short distance back in the woods.

"Three moose is about average," I told Karalyn, and she agreed. June 1 was free fishing day in New Hampshire and we had brought along a canoe and fishing tackle to use in East Inlet, not far from Coon Brook, but back in off a gravel road.

With the recent heavy rains in that area — up to 2½ inches in 24 hours leading to raging rivers — we decided to forego the fishing. After a breakfast at Moriah’s Diner in Pittsburg, we headed back to New York.

On the way, about 10 miles east of Island Pond, Vt., we came upon the first indication that Charlie’s theory on winter ticks was right. Just before a railroad crossing in the Wenlock area, a cow moose crossed in front of us. Her coat appeared to be ragged beyond the normal seasonal shedding.

Later in the day, after returning home, I called Charlie who told me that, judging from my description, the moose we saw there could have the tick problem.

The passing of ticks from one moose to another is part of the price paid by this area for having some of the thickest moose densities in North America. Even with expanded hunting in both Vermont and New Hampshire, moose populations continue to grow, albeit a little slower, in spite of winter tick infestation.

In contrast, in New York, there are an estimated 150-200 moose in an area as large as the state of Vermont, so high densities are not a concern here in the near future. There are, however, certain areas that look very similar to the moose licks or wallows we checked out in northern New Hampshire. The road between Bloomingdale and Split Rock Road (through Bloomingdale Bog) and the Standish Road just south of Standish come to mind.

Back in 1979, as a student, I worked with Charles Willey on a study of Vermont moose. There were only 75 in that state back then. Barely 23 years later, there are thousands of moose in Vermont. New York’s moose herd is certainly on the upswing. Maybe the day will come when we need not travel to Route 3 in New Hampshire for our photos, but down Route 3 in New York instead.