ONCE EXTINCT IN THE STATE, MOOSE RETURN TO NEW YORK
By HAROLD FABER
Published: December 27, 1983
THE stately moose, one of the
largest land animals in North
America, is growing in numbers and extending its range in the northeastern United States, according to reports from wildlife biologists in the area.
The moose's normal habitat stretches from the Arctic to the northern tier of states and south into the Rocky Mountains. But now it is moving south into areas normally occupied by white-tailed deer.
''We have had a dramatic growth of moose in New York,'' said Stuart Free, director ot the state's Bureau of Wildlife. ''You could call it a population explosion,'' said Alan Hicks, the moose expert of the State Department of Environmental Conservation.
In Maine, the moose population is reported to be above 20,000, with most of them in the northern part of the state. But they are expanding slowly to the south.
One measure of the growing population in Maine is reflected in car accident figures. In 1948 there were two such collisions, 25 in 1955, 75 in 1970, 156 in 1980 and 174 in 1982, according to the National Wildlife Federation.
''Twenty-five years ago when I came to Vermont as a big game unit leader, there were perhaps 25 moose in the state,'' said Ben Day, director of the state Division of Wildlife. ''In the last decade there has been a tenfold increase. Now there are at least between 200 and 400 moose in Vermont.''
The number of moose in New York is small by comparison, perhaps 15 to 20. But the number of moose sightings and their locations have increased substantially. In 1983, there were 98 sightings of moose in the state, up from 60 in 1982 and only a few in 1980. Many of the sightings, according to the moose experts, represented the same animal wandering around.
But the fact that there are any moose at all in New York is exciting to wildlife biologists, because the animals had been extinct in the state for more than 100 years.
''From a historic perspective, it's wonderful,'' Mr. Hicks said. ''We haven't had a resident moose population in New York since the Civil War and here we have a species that is in the process of re-establishing itself without help from man.''
In the last few months, moose have been reported in upstate New York from the Oswegatchie River in the northwestern corner of the Adirondack Mountains to Columbia County in the south and even near urban areas such as Syracuse and Schnectady.
The moose, with its impressive wide antlers, is easy to recognize. A bull moose can weigh as much as 1,500 pounds, standing six feet tall at the shoulders and perhaps 10 feet long. Cows are smaller, sometimes reaching a weight of 1,100 pounds. The more common white-tailed deer rarely weigh as much as 200 pounds.
According to the wildlife biologists, there is little doubt that the moose, an animal that thrives in cold weather and snow, is moving south across what has been the northern boundary of the white-tailed deer.
''But contrary to what people say, the moose are not driving the deer out, they are increasing because the deer population is falling,'' said Mr. Day.
The deer population is dropping for two major reasons, according to Karen Morris, a big game expert in Maine's Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. One is the impact of severe winters in the 1960's and 1970's, when high snows prevented deer from moving around and getting sufficient food and the other a change in forestry practices.
''There has been a lot of clear-cutting in Maine, which has produced a lot of food and good habitat for moose, with new trees growing 5, 10 and 15 feet in height, just within the reach of moose and too high for the deer,'' she said. ''From what we can see now, the moose population is growing in the south where they are logging more.''
Clear-cutting, which is the process of cutting down all the trees in a specific area, is bad for deer because it reduces their protection from cold winds and deep snow, according to Lawrence Garland, a wildlife biologist for the Vermont Fish and Game Department. A deep snow which would be over the shoulders of the smaller white-tailed deer would be only up to the chest of a moose, for example, he said.
In addition, the absence of deer has produced a more healthy habitat for the moose because it has reduced the danger of transmitting brain worms to them. The brain worm, a parasite that is carried by deer and is apparently harmless for them, is fatal to moose.
''If the moose that are coming into New York are not infected by the brain worm, within 10 years we might have a well-established moose population in the state,'' Mr. Free said. ''But there are an awful lot of ifs in that statement.''
The moose that have been sighted in New York have been mostly young bulls, presumably entering the state from western Vermont through a land corridor south of Lake George.
''Young bulls are the vanguard of an expanding population,'' said Eugene McCaffrey, a state wildlife expert. ''Of course it depends on having animals of both sexes to establish a breeding population, but there has been at least one report of a cow in the southern Adirondacks.''
In New York, with a small population of moose, car accidents are not the hazard for people or animals that they are in Maine. The animals apparently have crossed U.S. 9 and the lightly traveled Interstate 87 on the eastern border of the state without much trouble.
One problem, however, comes from irresponsible hunters. Even though the moose is protected by game laws in New York, with a fine of $2,000 possible for anyone who shoots one, the carcass of an illegally shot 680-pound young male was found in December in Columbia County.
But controlled hunting is accepted by wildlife biologists as a method of managing the numbers of moose in an area before they overwhelm their habitat. At present, nine states - Alaska, Idaho, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and Maine - permit moose hunting. Last November, the voters of Maine defeated a referendum calling for a ban on moose hunting.
photo of a moose