The Thing About Moose

Today in the office I was going over past moose reports. I came across a paper that explained how to record moose seen from the air while on a flight survey. I will be doing these types of surveys in November and early December. By this time there will be snow on the ground which makes it easier to see the moose especially if the vegetation has snow on it. The snow may start to fall here as early as August. Which is a couple of months earlier than I am use to but thats all right because I love the snow.

The surveys have to be done by early December as the males will be shedding their racks by mid December and from the air it will be hard to tell males and females apart. According to this paper, males come in three sizes, small, medium and large. To tell them apart you examine them from directly above and look at the rack. A yearly doesn't have any tines yet. Tines are the points on the paddle part of the rack. 2-3 year olds may have one tine and the larger the bull the larger and more tines he has. Then it said you fly around again ( which is the third time you've circled the moose because you had to fly by it once to spot it.) This time you try to look at it from the side. According to this guide a small bulls body looks like a square, a medium size moose has a body that looks like a rectangle and the large bulls have a trapoziod body shape. To go with the description they had little pictures with the shapes drawn over the bodies.

The paper also talked about the mother moose and her calf. It said that if a moose bends its head down to touch another moose that moose is female. Male moose to not do that behavior. A calf will be a lot smaller than the mother. I think that would be common sense but maybe long ago there was an intern who could not tell the difference and now it has to be explained. The paper went on to describe how a moose will react to your low flying plane. If you witness a female she will try to get to thicker cover. Usually she runs off and hopes that the calf will follow. You will not see a mother chase a calf to safety. Then the paper went on to say that groups of male moose will get worked up and fighting among them would be common. And eventually one or more of the moose will think the plane is part of the game and chase after your plane. Now that would be a sight to see.

The part I liked best was there was a note from the author which said after the second day of flying he was no longer airsick and the surveys went much better. Also good to know.