Moose Mortality - Winter Ticks

X-man

X-man

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
EE Expired
Rating - 100%
249   0   0
Location
Newfoundland
I saw a program the other day looking specifically at the Moose, its reproductive process, life cycle, predation, etc.... Most of the piece concentrated on Alaska and northern Canada, while also touching on Alberta & Europe briefly.

What really struck me was the impact that parasites like the winter tick are having on Moose located in what they called "southern climes" like Alberta. They showed one young Moose being tracked by two Alberta conservation officers who were trying to drive it back into the woods or put it down if they couldn't. The animal was so weak that it actually expired in front of them. It had massive patches of fur gone, was skinny as a rake and when the officers examined the carcass, the animal was literally crawling with grape sized ticks, bloated with the Moose's blood.

I've been hunting Moose down here in Newfoundland since I was 12 with my Dad. I'm in my mid-30s now and have taken lots of moose and caribou. I can't remember a single animal that I've taken that had so much as a single tick, although I've heard some guys say they've seen them. I'm not so naieve as to believe that our animals are parasite free; I trap, so I've seen lots of creepy crawlies living on furbearers...just looking at what lives on a beaver will blow your mind!

That said, I'm wondering just how widespread this problem is on the mainland? I love moose and moose hunting, but looking at those poor animals literally having the life sucked out of them by those vermin stirred some prehistoric horror within me. After watching that program, if there were a way, I'd happily wipe out every single tick and similar parasite on the planet if it were possible. No animal should have to expire that way in that much pain and discomfort. Nature can be a cruel ##### sometimes I guess...
 
Hey X-man

I hear ya...

Out here I've seen a lot of different things that I never saw home in this regard..

Wood ticks are one of them...

I was out for a walk with the dog and Dad up here by a lake. We were out of the car maybe 15 minutes total. When we got home, dad saw this strange bug on the dog. It was burrowd in and almost as big as a m&m just filled with blood. The another and another, then we saw that we were covered in them,...

For weeks they were in the house,... they climb high i the day and low at night...



This moose thing though,... I had never heard of it and am now quite interested... maybe I'll find it on the internet somewhere..
 
Last edited:
Around here (middle to northern SK) the ticks can be quite brutal to the moose. It's not uncommon in spring to see some pretty sick looking moose. I have seen some with big patches of hair missing and pretty much bald along the neck and shoulder areas then the next moose you see looks in good shape. I'm not sure what dictates which moose get hit hard by the ticks and the other doesn't. The only reason I say that is because while quading in spring you somtimes see sick ones and healthy ones within a few km's of each other.
 
Last fall we went hunting n Northern BC, Stewart Lake area between Chetwyn and Fort ST John. We were wondering why there weren't many moose around, and a bunch of locals told us that 50-70% of the moose died last winter as a result of ticks. They said the moose usually wade out into the river there to wash the ticks off, but the unusually cold winter froze the river, leaving many moose to die. One of the farmers up there found eight carcasses on his land in the spring.:(
 
Someone was watching the Natty G channel, I saw about half of that documentary, it is pretty sad, I wonder though if it is cyclic, as the Moose die off so do the ticks and then the moose rebound etc., I have no idea are they a moose specific tick?
 
I've seen moose ticks, up close. Grape sized is about right, when they are gorged with blood. Disgusting things.
The moose will rub much of their winter coat off trying to get rid of them, and can freeze to death.
 
Last edited:
We see a lot of it here in Northern AB. If I understand it right exposure is what kills the majority of the moose. They get ticks and start rubbing and remove so much hair they lose the insulation and staying alive becomes a huge energy drain, late and cold springs kill a lot of moose in this situation.
 
The area arround Sudbury is pretty bad for moose ticks. Any moose you see in April or May are almost bald, with sores all over their sides from rubbing up against trees to try to get rid of the ticks. I suspect that they are the major cause of moose mortality in this area, killing more than hunting.
 
We don't have ticks here yet, they're moving further north from the south shore every year, but I've only ever seen half a dozen around here.

NS has a huge problem with the brainworm, it's carried by WT deer with no problems for the host, then I believe it lives part of it's cycle in a snail for a host, then is passed to the moose when it ingests the snails while browsing. We don't have a lot of moose on the mainland anymore and we lose a few to this every year. They get stupid, show no fear of humans and eventually become a danger to people and vehicles and are generally put down.
 
I have seen the ticks on Moose here in North-Central BC. The moose look pretty weak when the infestation is bad. However, to say 50-70% of a moose population died due to ticks is a bit on the high side. I would guess the number is closer to 5-10%, just from 40 years of observation. The winter kill can be quite high at times, but other factors are larger contributors than are ticks. Even with those long legs, deep snow prevents them from foraging freely, and they get so weak from lack of food that they easily succumb to the winter ravages. Ticks sure do look ugly on a moose, though. I have seen them so weak in the spring that they could not walk more than a half dozen steps at a time. Regards, Eagleye.
 
Yummy...

tick1.jpg

tick2.jpg
 
the moose are a doomed species. Between bears, moose ticks and loss of habitat...not to mention the invasion of deer to thier land. I bet not to many places will have great moose #'s in another 20 years or so.
 
DVXDUDE said:
the moose are a doomed species. Between bears, moose ticks and loss of habitat...not to mention the invasion of deer to thier land. I bet not to many places will have great moose #'s in another 20 years or so.
Click to expand...

I've been advised that a lot of moose are being found drowned in Northern Lakes in Area 8 in Ontario. The ticks leading to fur loss, less insulation and hypothermia would help explain things, as is the brainworm passed on by deer.
another factor that the moose being weakened are falling prey to wolf packs. What also hasn't helped is the Ontario government now requiring licenses to shoot wolves in Northern Ontario - the attendant wolf increase is having the same effect as the spring bear hunt ban - predation increases.
 
DVXDUDE said:
the moose are a doomed species. Between bears, moose ticks and loss of habitat...not to mention the invasion of deer to thier land. I bet not to many places will have great moose #'s in another 20 years or so.
Click to expand...

Moose aren't doomed as long as Newfoundland remains above water....our problem is that they're too darned many of them! Highest population density in the world! No ticks to talk about, brainworm isn't an issue, and because there is so much other food available, calf mortality rates really aren't that bad due to bears or our recent addition the Eastern Coyote (which is no filling the niche left vacant by the extinct Newfoundland Wolf).

As for the brainworm issue, there is one variety that was accidentally introduced around the turn of the 20th Century by Sir Wilfred Grenville. He imported domestic Reindeer from Europe for use as cheap pack animals. They brought the brainworm with them and spread it across the island as they were herded to the Northern Peninsula. Our native Caribou, with no natural protection, were extremely hard hit and populations bottomed out for a while until they rebounded late last century. They're on a steep decline once again, however, due to extreme calf motality rates attributable to increased Bear and now Coyote predation. The herds are in crisis and the government has been slow to heed hunter warnings.
 
I worked near the Greenwater Provincial Park in east central Sask for four years, 2000-2004, and saw some tick-infested moose. The game wardens would tell us the numbers of dead moose found in the area. It was surprising. I don't think the moose are going to become extinct any time soon, as we have moose now in southern Saskatchewan where they never were before. There are moose around Gravelbourg where there is one tree per section of land - or less!! This one was in the Palmer area last month.
Moosex.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom