whats wrong with these moose!?

DVXDUDE

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are they just loosing their winter coats or is it ticks?? man the bugs are TERRIBLE I dont know how these things stand it. I think they are trying to show me how bad it really is.


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are these things going to live come fall and winter??? I walked around all weekend and never got a tick. Every single moose I got a pic of had this. Besides a calf from last year. His mom had it pretty bad so I imagine he will too. Damn that must be horrible.
 
Really bad ticks. Moose will rub their hair off on trees until they are bleeding. I saw a cow and calf pair that were so horribly covered in ticks that their flanks were bald, but their underbellies looked as though they were covered in grapes. Obviously, many of these moose die in the cold weather.
 
I initially thought it couldn't be ticks because I didn't see any


BUT

(warning, my own hairbrained logic at work)

Ticks affect them the most in the winter. The baby ticks latch on in late fall, suck the moose dry, then drop off in the beds come spring. The reason the moose are hit so hard is that in the winter moose can't find open water to immerse in to drown the ticks.

Because of that, you find moose in really stupid places/water in the winter looking for water, especially when covered in ticks. Come spring, they not only loose most of the ticks anyways, but they also get access to open water to stand in and drown the rest.
 
ticks

It's bugs alright, ticks AND fly bites. Like "Duncan Idaho" said, they will rub on trees to scratch the itch until they're missing their entire coat. Bears will do the same thing.

And don't worry about the lack of fear of humans guys, I'm pretty sure the pics are from a game cam! ;)

Cheers,

Tim H
 
Funny - I have the 'Guthro's Moose Madness' DVD set where he shows pictures of moose in the wild that look just like the ones above and he says that it was caused by ticks. According to the video (paraphrasing from memory) adult moose can have 1000s of ticks on them at once and will rub their skin raw to get rid of them. In some cases it can be fatal for the moose.

What does he know though...
 
Funny - I have the 'Guthro's Moose Madness' DVD set where he shows pictures of moose in the wild that look just like the ones above and he says that it was caused by ticks. According to the video (paraphrasing from memory) adult moose can have 1000s of ticks on them at once and will rub their skin raw to get rid of them. In some cases it can be fatal for the moose.

What does he know though...

In many, many cases, it is fatal to the moose.
Throughout the years in British Columbia, ticks have often been responsible for sudden drops in moose populations.
 
Its gotta be either ticks or mange, not sure which one but i would imagine mange since no ticks are visible. But that could be me overstepping my expertise ;)
 
could be bites from the moose fly - Haematobosca alcis. Ugly to look at, but don't affect the meat in any way.
Mmmmmmmoose sticks!!

But I think they are found mainly in Alaska

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