I saw a moose!!

[thecfarm]

Yes, I saw a moose on my land. I was hauling rocks down into the bog, a little before darkness. I saw something dark brown, it was facing me, a cow, it turned when it could really see me. Sure not like the deer, they just look at me as I get closer. I have not seen a moose on my land in years, no tracks either. They shot a couple on top of the hill, about a mile from my house, but they don't come on my land, until now.

[firefighter ontheside]

Moose are cool.  No moose in Missouri.  When I was working in MN in the 90s I was driving down a gravel road and came upon a moose in the middle of the road.  It was kneeling down licking the road.  I honked at it to get it to move.  It stood up and looked at my car for a minute and then went back to kneeling and licking the road.  I had to turn around and go back home.

[barbender]

Ray, who would've guessed that you would've found a way to mix in some rock hauling with your moose viewing? 😂

MN's moose populations have really suffered in the last 30 years. People like to blame wolves, but I tend to think it has far more to do with the proliferation of whitetails. Whitetails and moose don't mix, the deer carry parasites that are lethal to moose. There are also ticks that really go after moose, and the poor things will rub their hair off in the winter trying to itch themselves and then die from exposure. The tick population apparently rises after warm winters, not enough of them freeze. Just offshore out on Isle Royale in Lake Superior, the moose are doing too good- the wolf population took a hit when mange got on the island, actually almost killed all if them off. The moose population exploded and they start eating themselves out of house and home.

[SwampDonkey]

The moose on Newfoundland came from New Brunswick. They shipped 6 over on a boat back in the old time guide days of the 1800's. They used to go to Boston by rail to the sportsman show down there and some critters was stuffed, but some live. ;D George Armstrong (a relative) was a big part of that, it was to promote big game hunting up here.

Glad you have a moose to chew some of your trees to. :D

Up here in my area we always had a lot more moose than deer, even 50 years ago. You might see 3 all year, same 3 to. Had one guy tell me he saw 6 deer last fall, I said I never seen more than 3 in a year in 54 years. He never said they was all at once, I think not. There's always a BS'er. ;) I just happened to see a moose just before I drove to his truck, a cow. And that was no BS. ;) I'll pay anyone $100 per deer path in January up here, on my land. ;) I see tracks and droppings from May to November, then they skedaddle down river.

[HemlockKing]

Use to have moose right on my land. Pre 1970s, before white tail became super prevalent. Now there is SO many white tails they are like a magnet to your bumper any time you leave in your truck. They destroy everything they browse. I don't mind deer but numbers gotta be cut back. 

Afaik the closest moose to me
Is in Caledonia area which is about 1.5 hours. It's possible they could come back, doubt ful anytime soon though. Brainworm. Too bad reall my land is prime moose habitat. 

[sawguy21]

There is no shortage of them here. I recently saw a cow and calf on the road past my place and I live in town. I also saw three whitetails on the sidewalk, two went through the walkway into the school yard but the other got spooked by a car and ran. She got into quite a fuss, she could see her buddys through the fence but couldn't reach them.

[HemlockKing]

White tails here don't care. I'm sure if I wanted to I could tame them and hand feed them with a little time. The only wild moose I seen was driving through NB to the US border, it was in the middle of the road seemingly just standing idle? Took 5 minutes for him to mosey on across lol 

[sawguy21]

Yeah, they are not very bright.

[K-Guy]

Yeah, they are not very bright.

But very mean if you tick them off.

[HemlockKing]

Yeah, they are not very bright.

But very mean if you tick them off.

Did you get into it with a deer? 

[sawguy21]

They have become a problem here. Some areas have become over run and they are getting aggressive with pets and people. There are calls for culls but the PETA types get their skivvies in a knot.

[K-Guy]

Did you get into it with a deer? 

No. A few years ago in Old Town just north of Bangor someone posted a video of a Doe in town and it beat the you know what out of a dog that was pestering it. Those hooves a dangerous.

[peakbagger]

30 years ago moose were "household pests" in my neighborhood. The development is on the edge of town and there is drainage consisting of chain of small wetlands that go from one part of town to another. The development is off a major state highway (US RT2) and the cut and fill approach to road building means the road is built up through and adjacent to a wetland. Moose would pop up on the road suddenly while crossing. Two years in a row there were 9 moose each year killed and a couple of people from collisions. On occasion after a hit the town would need to send up a sand truck to sand the road after a hit as the blood made the road slippery. We usually had cows and calfs roaming the neighborhood around dawn and dusk and then they would go hang out in nearby bog during the day . Hard to start a lawn when a moose strolls through it.  On occasion during the rut a bull would roam around with its harem.  There were multiple wrecks in the area in the spring and the state posted large watch out for moose signs on major roads with a count of moose accidents on the bottom. They quickly stopped the count as it took too much time to update. Fast forward to today and the winter tick is hitting the moose hard, the ticks multiplied along with the moose and they are sucking the moose alive all winter. Most baby moose die from blood loss and the adults die of brainworm due to the stress from the ticks. There are still moose around but a lot fewer. The state is talking about overhunting the herd to knock the population density way down for several years and hope the ticks die off then bring them back at a much lower density than today. The moose are on the far south of their range and some think its lost cause as its too warm for them to survive in the summer. 

[barbender]

Where is your neighborhood, peakbagger?

[peakbagger]

Northern NH

[Hilltop366]

The only one I have seen was running up the river as I crossed the Kittery bridge 25ish years ago, I think someone on the New Hampshire side was trying to feed him grits and he was running back to Maine. ;)

 The Nova Scotia mainland moose is a endangered species,  I have seen tracks and droppings in the backwoods of Yarmouth and Digby counties but not a live moose.

I was told that right at the beginning of the trail to my backwood cabin there was a pair of moose standing in the road, the guy that was telling me said as he drove around the bend his wife said that there was a team of work horses standing in the road at the other end of the straight stretch but as they got bit closer realized that they were 2 moose standing side by side.

[HemlockKing]

The only one I have seen was running up the river as I crossed the Kittery bridge 25ish years ago, I think someone on the New Hampshire side was trying to feed him grits and he was running back to Maine. ;)

The Nova Scotia mainland moose is a endangered species,  I have seen tracks and droppings in the backwoods of Yarmouth and Digby counties but not a live moose.

I was told that right at the beginning of the trail to my backwood cabin there was a pair of moose standing in the road, the guy that was telling me said as he drove around the bend his wife said that there was a team of work horses standing in the road at the other end of the straight stretch but as they got bit closer realized that they were 2 moose standing side by side.

I'm glad to hear there are moose in my neighbouring county. Use to be lots of moose in my area. Isn't it because of the white tail overpopulation that hurts mainland moose? Brainworm carries by white tail. I say the DNR outta do more to control their populations, they are EVERYWHERE, wouldn't this be the best practice to bringing back moose?

[Tacotodd]

The whitetail has gone from a protected species to a problem child. They are nearly as bad as rats. That's what happens when you do TO much. Don't get me wrong, because I love my deer meat, but come on, when is it to much?

[Hilltop366]

Seems to be well documented that moose and whitetail don't mix well, but probably more than one factor.

I have not travelled the back country much in recent years (use to take a annual canoe trip that almost always was in the Tobeatic Wilderness) but when I did it was rare to see a deer or deer sigh but the deer are very skittish back there too, not like deer that live around houses, sometimes they look in my windows.

[SwampDonkey]

I did see a buck deer in velvet step out of my woods on the weekend. Not a large deer, but looked like 8 points. This morning a mile down the road a doe and her fawn along the road at 6:00 am. Been coyotes here most every night yip'n.