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Outdoor Corner: 2010 Moose report
Gene Plihal
for Smoky River Express
Well, most of winter has come and most of it, hopefully, is gone. I spent the last three weeks down in the sun belt soaking up Nevada sunshine only to be told that things were relatively mild back here through February.
Hence, it wasn’t surprising that when I got back and started doing an inventory of how wildlife did this winter that I wasn’t surprised to find that things look pretty good.
First, on the moose scene, I have had moose around my house all winter and they appeared to be in good shape throughout December and January. But, I hadn’t really gone into deep bush areas to see what was up there. After doing a couple days of investigation culminating with a drive on logging roads deep into the area behind McLennan (north of it, actually), I found that moose are largely in nice shape, very few or no signs of tick infestations (all of the hair is still pretty much in place), and lots of signs or actually sightings of live moose. As I stated in an earlier article, there seems to be an inordinate number of twin calves, still alive two weeks before the first day of Spring.
Same story with the deer. I have seen herds of up to 20 grazing alfalfa fields. Whitetail are numerous but mule deer are definitely fewer in number. I have not seen one mule deer doe though I have seen several bucks. I have captured images of mule deer doe and fawn on my trail cameras but have seen none in my walks or travels lately.
Elk have survived extremely well. Unfortunately, some of the hay that they found did not survive so well. One access road not plowed all winter was recently opened by Sunrise County personnel and I have spotted as many as 35 elk at one time visiting some bales left out over winter which showed the effects of frequent visitations from these elk. In other words, these bales were virtually “toast”. The elk were largely fat and sleek and calves were present in the herd that I saw on March 1.
In speaking with enforcement director Rob Lamont of Peace River Fish and Wildlife, I was told that there was very probably going to be action on reducing the mule deer doe hunting in the upcoming season. This will be good news to many who share my view that eliminating the doe season on mule deer is overdue. As I indicated to Mr. Lamont, it’s a case of policy lags behind reality.
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Top photos: This cow moose and her two calves (one barely visible on far right) high tailed it away from my house when I tried to take their photograph on Feb. 28. The garbage barrel in my yard shown speaks of the moose’s proximity to my house under the very nose of my “guard” dog, Chance.
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Picture of two cow moose taken on March 1. Both appear black and in very good condition. All moose that I took pictures of began to move quickly. This is a good sign since sick or malnourished moose are often oblivious to human presence.
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