We Have Good Moose News and Bad Moose News

It is true, moose are making a comeback in the Adirondacks. You can read all about it here or click on the word “Moose” in the tag cloud in the right column here on Adirondack Lifestyle.

The good moose news leads us to the alert: moose have been spotted running around the Adirondacks lately and that includes running across roads. The results can be fatal when moose and cars meet on a road. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation notes:

Vehicle Collisions are a significant mortality factor for moose, especially where road densities are high. Moose are so tall that an automobile usually passes under the body, causing the moose to come over the hood into the windshield and onto the roof. Moose are most active from dusk to dawn, when their coloration makes them difficult to see in the roadway and their eyes are usually above the reach of car headlights. About one to two percent of moose/car collisions result in a human fatality. Research in other states has shown that vehicle speed is the most common factor leading to moose collisions, so the best way to avoid hitting a moose is to slow down, especially from dusk to dawn.

Moose have been seen recently on the Fox Farm Road in Wilmington, crossing Route 73 near North Country School outside of Lake Placid, on River Road in Lake Placid, and someplace near Vermontville. Additional sightings are certain, so please be cautious.

The moose featured in this story is a young bull who got himself into trouble wandering around in Halfmoon, New York, last fall 2013. Halfmoon is a residential community close to Albany, New York, and residential rush hour traffic can be difficult to navigate for a youngster, even one with those long legs. The DEC Moose Busters from the Adirondacks where called in and gave the lucky bull a ride to his new home in the Adirondacks. Here’s some local television coverage of the Halfmoon Moose story.

The resident biologist tells me this bull moose is alive and likes to take long walks around the Adirondacks. His transponder beep has been heard across hundreds of miles in the Adirondack High Peak Region as recently as last month. Yay!

Now for the bad moose news. Ed was called to the scene of a deceased bull moose in Long Lake earlier this week. He said the moose was in very bad shape; malnourished and so skinny he was all bones. The moose team gathered organ and tissue samples to be sent for pathology studies in Albany. The fear is the moose was killed by brain worm, a parasitic nematode (round worm), Parelaphostrongylus tenuis (P. tenuis), which is found frequently in white-tail deer in the Adirondacks. White-tail deer are unaffected by the nematode but it is often fatal to moose.

We may never know for sure what killed this moose, but it is always sad when we lose one from an already small population of these magnificent creatures. Please be careful on the roads. . . you might see and save a moose, or yourself!