New Hampshire has record numbers of moose, and they're on the move across the region.
Welcome to this week's edition of Something Wild. I'm Rosemary Conroy for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
This is a good time of year to be a moose - and not just because another hunting season has passed. Right about now is when moose have their annual meetups. Usually fairly solitary creatures, the fall mating season brings bulls and cows together to make more moose.
And they've been doing a pretty good job of it. We have more of these big twig-eaters than ever. The latest count puts the population at about 6500 in the Granite State. That's an amazing comeback - in the mid 1800's there were less than two dozen.
And moose are on the move all over the Northeast. New York has them for the first time in centuries - two hundred and counting. And so many of these overgrown members of the deer family have been ambling south that even Connecticut has a few - although people probably won't be braking for moose in Hartford very often.
These animals are designed for cold weather - North Country kind of cold. Just take a look at your average Bullwinkle - those long legs are meant to get them through deep snow. That shaggy coat is made up of thousands of hollow hairs to trap air for maximum insulation. In fact, adult moose have much more trouble staying cool than warm - that's why you often find them deep in swamps come summer. And, it turns out, they're well-designed for that too.
Until recently, no one could figure out why moose had those big, floppy noses, something no other deer or elk has. Apparently that nose is filled with special muscles that seal up its nostrils so it can better feed on underwater plants - and, of course, stay cool.
Makes you wonder if global warming will drive moose further north - or just further underwater.
Something Wild is a joint production of New Hampshire Audubon, NHPR and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. For Something Wild, I'm Rosemary Conroy.
