New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

NH Heat Wave Too Hot for New Mother Moose

Wednesday 06/20/2012

Record or near record heat is due in New Hampshire today. How do moose keep their cool? They don't. And that's the trouble. Heat waves, whether in winter or summer, stress our moose. In winter temperatures above 23 degrees are troubling. In spring and summer, like right now, it's temperatures above 68 degrees that get moose panting and over 79 degrees they stop eating. Not a good thing if you are nursing a calf, which most of the cow moose are doing right now!

But it is our warm winters of late that have had the most dramatic impacts on our moose. Over the last six years moose numbers have dropped some 40 percent due to too warm winters causing a spike in moose tick numbers. Warm, snow reduced winters like 2007 and 2010 caused a huge spike in moose tick numbers resulting in some moose harboring well over a 100,000 ticks. This has resulted in significant moose die offs the following winters with as much as 40 percent of the adults dying and nearly 100 percent of the calves.

Climate change is not just something to worry about for the future but something moose must deal with now. The fact is, right now, the heat is on our moose and the biologist who manage them.