Moose Alert: They’re Back in Force

The moose has made a comeback from the brink of extinction and now moose are on the loose, from New York to the Great Lakes states to the Rockies, for the first time in 100 years.

There are so many moose in some regions, according to an article in the current issue of Sports Afield, that they are causing moose-mania among the population.

There also is what some people call the Bullwinkle Factor. The moose’s homeliness, awesome size, long vacant stares and presumed blatant stupidity are a bad combination when a moose is meandering through town or across a road.

In one upper Midwest town, a few citizens piled into cars and chased a young moose to its death. In recent incidents in which invading moose have been killed, their deaths were often caused by thoughtlessness and ignorance and inexperience on the part of local police and conservation officers.

Moose have been struck by vehicles from Maine to Alaska. Along one 50-mile stretch in western Maine, 30 to 70 moose are killed by cars annually. In Alaska, about 40 moose died each year on an eight-mile stretch of highway north of Anchorage until lights and fencing were installed.

A few winters ago, 24 moose fell to a single Alaska Railroad train making its 712-mile round trip run between Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Part of the problem is the nature of the beast. When there is deep snow, moose instinctively walk trails. Railroad tracks and highways are often the only open trails in their winter environment--and moose do not give up the right of way.

Moose have poor vision, but their hearing is so sensitive that even when they are feeding with their faces underwater, those big ears twist and scan above water like radar.