whats wrong with these moose!?

don't think its mange. Got lots of coyote pics and not one has manage. Deer and bears don't have any signs either, just the moose. Hopefully they get some fur back before winter settles in, there is already a shortage of moose.


yes, these are trail cam pics, I didnt get that close to them.
 
dvxdude- When were these pics taken?
Mange would leave sores/raw areas and a tick problem would look similar. That moose doesn't seem to have any sores,just no hair.
They lose the ticks in early spring and get them again in late fall. It's when they rub hair off in winter that they die due to exposure, ie-no insulation. Same goes for mange in coyotes,etc. The mange doesn't kill them, it's the loss of insulation.
FWIW, there's many parasites that don't jump btw species. Foxes can't get the same mange as coyotes & wolves.
These ticks seem to affect moose more than other deer species. Elk have them as well, especially neck area but they don't die from them.
 
about 30minutes west of Algonquin park Ontario. I wrote the MNR and told them I'd send pics if needed. I know they will do ####-all but I thought i better tell them. Now likely they will hand out NO tags for this year. Great, just ####ed myself LOL.
 
dvxdude- When were these pics taken?
Mange would leave sores/raw areas and a tick problem would look similar. That moose doesn't seem to have any sores,just no hair.
They lose the ticks in early spring and get them again in late fall. It's when they rub hair off in winter that they die due to exposure, ie-no insulation. Same goes for mange in coyotes,etc. The mange doesn't kill them, it's the loss of insulation.
FWIW, there's many parasites that don't jump btw species. Foxes can't get the same mange as coyotes & wolves.
These ticks seem to affect moose more than other deer species. Elk have them as well, especially neck area but they don't die from them.

I doubt it's ticks, and ticks can be all summer round in the right moist/temp areas with the right plants, and trees (oaks).

Mange does not always leave open soars.
 
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don't think its mange. Got lots of coyote pics and not one has manage. Deer and bears don't have any signs either, just the moose. Hopefully they get some fur back before winter settles in, there is already a shortage of moose.


yes, these are trail cam pics, I didnt get that close to them.


No offense, but seeing other animals without mange in the same area as one that does have mange means very little.

Back in the 70's I've shot ground hogs all in the same field, and it was not uncommon to find 2 with mange out of 50 ground hogs in a day. Yes...50 and more ground hogs were easy back in the good'ol days;)
 
I feel let down. I thought CGN was a group of knowledgible hunters and they all should be well aware of conditions affecting the most popular game animal in Canada.
Instead, many of them can't understand it, even after being told three times, by a genuine knowledgible hunter, as well as by some more of us.
I too, will repeat, tick infestation is often a major cause of death for the moose, in numbers sufficient to noticably reduce moose populations.
It is in late winter, early spring that most of them die.
 
That's the worst I've seen.

Then I take it you haven't seen any that have died from ticks.
I've seen them stumble out onto a bush road in early spring, wobble, then fall down and not be able to get up.
The moose in the picture are well on their way to recovery.
 
If you google moose and ticks you get pictures like above. If you google moose and mange, you get a bunch of documents, but no pictures.

Be the judge.
 
Arround Sudbury, ALL of the moose you see in april and may look just like that, by the middle of june their new summer coat of hair has started to grow in and they don't look too bad. By now, they look real good and by fall, they will have grown in a new thick winter coat. Next spring they will look like sh1t again. Ticks for sure.
 
I doubt it's ticks, and ticks can be all summer round in the right moist/temp areas with the right plants, and trees (oaks).

Mange does not always leave open soars.

We're talking about winter ticks here,aka moose ticks,not about deer ticks or wood ticks. Different species.

Mange is caused by mites which attack the hair follicles and it causes inflammation. Members of the deer family don't generally get mange.

Until we get a moose biologist on here, I'm going to bet that moose is shedding its coat of hair.

Spring moose with winter tick problem
moose_winter_tick.jpg
 
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Going back to the original pictures....

1. I would think a moose with this much of a tick problem would be underweight, as they'll spend more time grooming than actually eating. But this moose does not look under weight to me? Unless you guys had an early spring, I would guess that moose was grooming it's coat until at least late April, and should show signs of being underweight.

2. The dewlap looks a little too bare. As if the hair fell out, rather than rubbed off.
 
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