Found where a moose gave birth today

zedex

zedex

CGN frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
53   0   0
Location
Right here in B.C.
I was out quading today actually looking for Coyotes. I found 4 spots where a moose was trying to give birth this morning. She was obviously having a very difficult time by the watery blood spray and hair in 4 different spots where she bedded down. There were still only one set of tracks coming out of the bedding area so i dont know what was going on with her.I tracked her for about 1/2 km,she was losing blood the whole way. Not dark blood but very watery stuff. Her urine was also pink so she has blood in her urine as well. I could hear crows cawing in the distance on private property. So i hiked back to the quad.
I didnt realize moose gave birth in the snow but i guess its technically spring. I hope she made it ok.
I took a bunch of pictures and if you want me to post them i can.
 
That would be cool to see zedex, pics please!!! Careful with momma moose, I hear they can be quite protective...

Cheers
Jay
 
Well. Here are the pics. You can be the judge. I found lots of blood,droppings and fur. I wish i would have taken a pic of the pink urine.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/zedex/118-1858_IMG.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/zedex/118-1857_IMG.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/zedex/118-1854_IMG.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/zedex/118-1853_IMG.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/zedex/118-1852_IMG.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/zedex/118-1851_IMG.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/zedex/118-1850_IMG.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/zedex/118-1849_IMG.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/zedex/118-1848_IMG.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/zedex/118-1847_IMG.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/zedex/118-1846_IMG.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/zedex/118-1845_IMG.jpg
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/zedex/118-1859_IMG.jpg

One pic is my size 10 boot compared to her print. My hands are pretty big and she was leaving some huge droppings.
 
Last edited:
There were no other tracks around. No coyote tracks to speak of. She was definitely having a hard time. 4 different bedding areas.Lots of hair,lots of blood,lots of droppings. I dunno.
 
Last edited:
Zedex posted before me....that might explain the fur. Maybe a really bad infection of some sort?
 
I am wondering if all the blood is coming out her mouth and not her other end. The way it is sprayed around might be from her coughing. Pretty sad. I may go back up tomorrow(weather permitting) with my snowshoes and see what i find.
 
id guess some sort of infection from the ticks that it has. could the hair clumps possibly be from it scratching so much that the hair is coming out:confused:

not sure why the blood would be sprayed like that though. was there blood on the ####?

im wondering if maybe the moose snuck into the local restaraunt and had ate way too much spicy food and since its not used to spicy food it basically burned the inside of its ####ter. so, every fart = relief, yet a bloody spray? :D :confused:
 
Interesting. How about sending an e-mail to your natural resources people with what you have found? They may be interested as well.
 
Blood, hair , moose

The moose was infested with ticks. They shake like a dog to get rid of engorged ticks and spray blood from the bite locations as the ticks are shook loose. She may have been rubbing on trees, branches etc. as well to xcrape them off. A serious tick infestation can give a tick count of 10k-30k ticks per animal (and those numbers are not finite as the moose may acquire additional ticks over time), the ticks being in different stages of development. Hair loss is common as result and it is not unusual in a bad year to see a moose that is nearly devoid of all hair. If a cold spell sets in the moose is likely to either freeze or get pneumonia and die from it. Ticks combined with bad weather can cause serious declines in moose populations.
 
Stocker hit the nail on the head. Dead moose coming right up. It's been another unusually warm winter and there'll be very bad tick infestations especially around farm country moose. Nieghbour counted 6 tick killed moose a couple springs ago on one quarter (160 acres) around town here. So far this winter, I haven't seen too many badly affected moose, but that could change as the weather warms up...KF
 
Moose ticks

BC Bigbore: I think it was about 1980 around your home town that we took a tremendous hit on moose as a result of a late February chinook which brought the ticks out followed by a serious onslaught of Arctic weather. I think I probably put down 20-30 moose that spring that were dying where they lay and a bullet was a kindness. Naked moose were common throughout the area and they were suffering terribly. Nothing is as hard as old Mom Nature.
 
Maybe she is scraping because of the ticks ... the hair gets loosened up and sticks to the snow when she lays down?

I am on dial-up so will check out the pics tomorrow.

EDITED TO ADD:

Duh! I should have read page 2 before posting!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom