Enter The Moose: Sightings In Connecticut Ramp Up

CONNECTICUT — Connecticut has entered prime moose sighting season. But don't expect to be bumping into one sniffing around your bird feeders. Unlike the bear and bobcat populations in the state, there's just not a lot of moose in these parts.

According to Andrew Labonte, a deer and moose biologist with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, moose are only a "recent phenomenon" in Connecticut.

In the '70s and '80s, the animals wandered south as the populations in northern New England exploded. They began to take up residence in northern Connecticut along the Massachusetts border, according to Labonte.

The biologist said he doesn't expect the moose herds to travel much further south than they already have. The big fellows like it cold, and southern Connecticut lacks the shade they crave.

"We don't have a lot of conifers," Labonte said. "We have higher temperatures than they're used to, so they primarily seek out a lot of shade during the day instead of feeding, like they should."

The first sighting of a moose cow with calves in Connecticut was reported in 2000 in Hartland, according to the DEEP website. Over the next seven years, at least 40 calves were born in the state.

Moose may choose to be cool over being well-fed, but don't worry too much about them starving. They still manage to eat 40 to 50 pounds of food a day on the average.

A moose's hesitation to break a sweat and the limited shade in the southern part of the state has kept the herds out of harm's way in Connecticut, for the most part.

"We haven't ever had a great deal of car accidents (involving a moose)," Labonte said. "Six is the most we've had in the state in any one year, that was around 2015. We've averaged one or two a year since about 2009."

Most accidents involving motorists hitting moose happens typically this time of year. Momma moose is giving birth to her next generation of calves, and so Mother Nature pushes last year's babies away from hearth and home to make their way in the outside world. It may sound cruel, but it's the Moose Way.

The most recent collision between moose and man was just last week in Granby. DEEP wildlife biologists determined the moose had only recently given birth before the crash, and are speculating there is a moose calf on the loose in the area.

As much as moose crave the shade of an old, tall conifer tree, they also prefer to feed on new growth forests. In Northern England, there is a robust cycle of clear-cutting and re-planting that helps the herds thrive. In Connecticut, not so much. Add to that a craving for aquatic vegetation due to a salt dependency, and a weakness to certain insects common in Connecticut, and it's a wonder they're here at all.

"There's a lot of population constraints for them here in Connecticut, just a lot of barriers," Labonte acknowledged.

In northern New England, where moose conditions are prime, there is uncertainty among biologists about their fate. Warmer winters heave led to longer seasons for moose nemesis, the winter tick. As the colder months have become less harsh, the ticks have found more time to feast on their host.

"They've found upwards of over 100,000 ticks on one moose," Labonte said. "They're finding a huge die off of moose in northern New England. The moose are becoming extremely anemic because of the amount of blood loss that they're experiencing from the ticks."

Moose hunting isn't legal in Connecticut, as there's just not enough of them. But in neighboring Vermont, where it is allowed, wildlife authorities have begun to restrict the sport as the moose population begins to fall off, Labonte said. Throughout New England, the population has declined 50 percent from where it was in the 1990s.

Unlike their guidelines for bobcats and bears, DEEP doesn't have much in the way of official "Do's and Don't's" when it comes to interacting with Bullwinkle and his buddies. Basically, the agency wants you to avoid crashing into them if you can, and submit your sightings to their website so that their migration can be tracked.