Ticky moose out there?
 

This is the time of year ghost moose (=ticky moose) begin showing up. Anyone seeing any? Are we going to lose moose this year?

tic doc

moose
 

around gp here seen 7 moose today no tics, i couldnt see any.. not like last year that was nasty. seeing lots around!!

Saw these guys on Friday.

one more time

Swamp what neck of the woods did you take the pics. Looks like a few ticks got at these fellers.

i am not to sure how to tell if ticks are on a moose or not. i was told that you would see alot of white patches on them but i'm still not to sure of what he meant. does the hair fall out and you see more of the skin or does the hair turn white. can someone clearify this for me.:huh: :huh:

Saw this young one on Sunday. He was a bit lazy, laying in the sun but overall looks ok. Not much white on him.http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b.../YoungBull.jpg

awsome
 

that is a awsome photo of that little guy

Only saw 1 moose so far with a big bald spot. Seems like there's lots of moose around this year- many mornings and evenings I've seen 10+ during a 60-90 minute drive to or from location.

answers to big d
 

"i am not to sure how to tell if ticks are on a moose or not. i was told that you would see alot of white patches on them but i'm still not to sure of what he meant. does the hair fall out and you see more of the skin or does the hair turn white. can someone clearify this for me."

See attached pics. Hair is broken at base caused by moose grooming against the itch of ticks biting them (actually sucking bloods from moose). Hair is greyish at base, hence looks whitish.

So, most damage to hair coat is caused by grooming.....breaking hair, but some hair actually falls out. Thus, heavy damage and loss of haircoat is called a ghost moose.

ticdoc

I was teaching a tracking course last month and on my way to the field trip I saw an adult moose walking along the fence line at Elk Island Park. I slowed down to have a look and it didn't have much fur on him. He was also staggering and didn't look in too good a shape. Then on the course, we followed a set of moose tracks to where the animal had bedded down. The melted snow in the bed contained lots of hair and about 20 well fed ticks. So, there could be some problem at least east of Edmonton..?

Got a young moose in BC one year, got him home hung him in the shed, next morning there were hundreds of dead ticks on the shed floor. Didn't even know he had ticks when we gutted him and loaded him.

There have been three cases of adult moose starving to death in southern alberta. The last one was near Lethbridge.

This is coming from the Veterenary College in Saskatoon where my sister studies. Apparently the only cause of death on all three cases were starvation.

Has anyone seen exceptionally thin moose in the south?

I think I saw the same animal. He was in the south section of the park (wood bison side) right in the NW corner. Didn't look great.

TicDoc
 

Is that you Dr. Bill?

That was him.

The good news is that I haven't seen any others ticked out. Most of the other ones I see through there look great.

Maybe he just got unlucky.

I have seen 10-12 moose in the Athabasca area in the last 2 weeks.
All showed signs of ticks.