Good Winter for Moose in NH

One plus for to most was a long darn winter. Mid April and still plenty of snow in the woods.

http://nhpr.org/post/early-data-hints-population-uptick-nh-moose-herd

Give it a couple of weeks and I expect the road side swamps will acquire their resident moose.

peakbagger said:

One plus for to most was a long darn winter. Mid April and still plenty of snow in the woods.

http://nhpr.org/post/early-data-hints-population-uptick-nh-moose-herd

Give it a couple of weeks and I expect the road side swamps will acquire their resident moose.

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My understanding for the theory is that the cold spring/snow pack kills ticks that fall off, which should result in a 1 year lag. Last spring was also pretty cold as I recall, so a bunch of those winter ticks wouldn't have survived. As this spring has also been cold, the theory would predict that next winter would have a good survival rate as well, right? The article didn't really go into that.

The theory I have seen is that the ticks drop off the moose at some point in the life cycle in the late winter. If they fall on open ground they can crawl up on brush and seek a new host. If there is snow on the ground they die and don't survive to attach to another moose. So its not the cold as much as its the late snow pack.

peakbagger said:

The theory I have seen is that the ticks drop off the moose at some point in the life cycle in the late winter. If they fall on open ground they can crawl up on brush and seek a new host. If there is snow on the ground they die and don't survive to attach to another moose. So its not the cold as much as its the late snow pack.

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I think we're on the same page, but you're right - it could be warm, but still have a crazy deep snow pack. I was looking at the RMC website a couple weeks ago and noticed the 'record snow depth' of 126" on March 31st! I'm guessing that lasted for a while.

Must be real healthy moose up near Jay Peak

http://www.benzinga.com/pressreleas...snowfall-in-continental-us-during-2014-15-sea

I believe the ticks drop off in "spring" to lay their eggs. If they fall on snow rather than ground, they have to find a spot quickly or they will die. At the top of the state a week ago, there was still 3-4 feet of snow in places (I was up there snowmobiling and got stuck that deep). We rarely are able to snowmobile into April, and they just stopped grooming the trails in Pittsburg this week. So the snow pack is certainly staying later than normal and should help out next year for the moose.