Dead moose on trail alert

I did an overnight in Northern New Hampshire this past weekend and I expected to see a few moose along the way. Well, my predictions came true. The first one I saw from a distance as it trotted away in some open woods. The second one stood and stared at me as I came up the trail before moseying along after a good 30 seconds of me shouting at it. The third one, well, it wasn't going anywhere for awhile.

I had just summitted Mount Cabot on the Kilkenny Ridge Trail and made my way along the lesser traveled trail section North of the summit towards The Bulge and The Horn. About 0.1 mile before the summit of The Bulge (and about 1 mile past the summit of Cabot) I came around a turn and was overwhelmed with the buzzing of flies. I took a whiff and thought they were swarming over a pile of fresh dung. I looked around for the pile of slimy stuff but I noticed something that looked like a hoof. I had to totally refocus my vision to the big picture as I stepped back and saw a huge dead moose sprawled out across the trail! It couldn't have been dead more than a couple days because the whole body was intact including the eyes. I couldn't tell what had caused it to keel over right on the trail, there was no sign of a struggle or any wounds save for the stomach, which had been disemboweled and was now crawling with about a million of those things they make you eat on Fear Factor.

This got me to thinking... what is the standard operating procedure when one finds large dead wildlife blocking a WMNF trail? What are the proper authorities to notify, if any? Should I contact any Fish and Wildlife officers, or Forest Rangers? Any advice would be appreciated.

And no, there were no antlers to salvage for all you sick scavengers out there!

I'd just leave it alone and in a matter of days it will be mostly gone. There was a dead moose up on South Crocker in Maine last year and within a week I was told that it was hard to tell that there was even a dead moose there at all. All that was left as evidence was some fur and part of the jaw. I wouldn't worry about it.

What?! A Moose drop? Should we take it or leave it? DOH!

HEy Al... the stomach cavity.. and the moose for that matter was more than likely overcome and buffeted on by Coyotes.

As for procedures... no clue.. maybe a chainsaw?

Should we take it or leave it?

Click to expand...

I guess moose don't practice LNT

"Hey, Rock' — watch me pull a maggot out of my stomach."

In NH, report the dead moose to NH Fish & Game. If they can reach the carcass with an ATV, they may drag it out and haul it to the moose dump. That is the procedure when a private landowner requests help or when moose are killed roadside. In the wild, they may leave the carcass as a food supply for other animals. In any event, report for statistical purposes (see Moose Project below). Walk well around it yourself. Check for ticks when you get home.

I had a moose die in my back yard a few years ago. It was a pathetic sight. It too succumbed without apparent wounds. It died from a winter tick infestation. The carcass was alive with them. I'll spare everyone the rest of the details but I'll never forget the sight. Fish & Game was extremely prompt and helpful in dealing with it. They could not remove it because of the soft ground but they dragged it off the pathway. This was in May; we steered well clear of it all summer and fall but did hear bears near it. By next spring the carcass was gone entirely.

If you see pale moose, known as "ghost moose," it is likely they are tick-infested, another good reason not to get too close to any moose. It can take several years before the infestation kills the moose. Slowly but surely, the parasite saps the moose and causes it to rub against trees, opening up infection sites.

Here's an article on the subject from NH Fish & Game's Wildlife magazine:

"Winter Ticks and Moose

If you harbor dreams of being reincarnated, I'd urge you to not wish for a next life as a moose. Sure, they're imposing, revered, have few natural enemies and are lords of the forest. BUT, they are also routinely home to tens of thousands of ticks. Yeach!

Every year moose get to host large numbers of ticks, and winter ticks are far and away the most numerous visitor. Winter tick, also known as Dermacentor albipictus, is common to all moose populations in the contiguous U.S. Unlike its cousins, the common dog tick, or even the dreaded deer tick (carrier of lyme disease), winter ticks complete their entire life cycle on one animal. They do this most successfully on moose. Unlike other winter tick hosts, moose tend to put grooming at the end of their list of daily chores. As a result, ticks that get on a moose tend to stay there for quite a while.

Winter ticks like to do things together. A female tick will lay several thousand eggs in late May/early June. These eggs hatch in late summer, and the resultant tick larvae climb nearby vegetation as a group and then "quest," or wait, for a moose to brush past. Because the ticks cling to each other, if one tick gets a good grip on a passing moose, the whole cluster of ticks will be able to climb on board. As each cluster is composed of several thousand ticks, it doesn't take too many cluster encounters to infest a moose with tens of thousands of ticks. Ticks that aren't successful in catching a ride, die.

Once they are on the moose, winter ticks moult twice before becoming adults. With each moult, and again as adults, they take a blood meal. Adult ticks fall off moose between March and May. If the tick falls off and lands on snow, it will die. If it falls off onto dry ground, it will survive to lay eggs and the cycle will be unbroken. So the number of ticks in the environment is strongly influenced by weather. Cold, wet autumns prevent questing ticks from catching a ride, and, if this is followed by a cold, snowy spring, adult ticks falling off moose will die before laying eggs. (Another reason moose love cold weather!) A warm, dry fall followed by a warm, snow-free spring will cause moose to have heavier tick infestations the following fall.

In an average year, most moose will host about 35,000 ticks, but in a good year for ticks, moose can become infested with up to 160,000 ticks per moose -- about 50 ticks per square inch of hide. Talk about unwanted visitors! Feeding these ticks creates serious problems for the host moose, including anemia from blood loss, damage to and loss of winter hair coat as the moose grooms and rubs in an attempt to get rid of the ticks, reduced stores of visceral fat as the moose decreases time both feeding and bedding to spend more time grooming, and reduced growth for young moose.

Unfortunately for moose, the tick infection occurs in winter, and the adult ticks feed in late winter and early spring, when moose are already challenged by cold and reduced body fat. Add to this a heavy tick load, with its attendant anemia and increased energy expenditure, and moose start to die. In New Hampshire, the month of April seems to be the month when moose stressed by winter ticks will die. Years of high tick loads can result in a significant loss of moose.

So, moose and winter ticks are an established host/parasite relationship. Virtually all moose are host to some level of ticks in all years. Occasionally, we have a year when weather conditions are perfect for ticks, and large numbers of moose die as a result. I'm sure that the ticks provide a lot of food for many species of birds, and the dead moose provides lots of food for everything from bears to worms. But I can't help but agree with Aristotle, who referred to ticks as "disgusting, parasitic animals." I'm sure our moose would agree. -- Kristine Bontaites, N.H. Fish and Game Moose Project Leader

Waumbec
Nice article. I wanted to give you some rep points but need to give them to others first.

One point about ticks, there is protien in the saliva that prevents blood from clotting. Foriegn protiens in the blood have the potential to trigger an autoimmune type response. This could range from anaphalxis, to host of other problems.