Ticks Feast, Death Rate Spikes for Young Moose, Study Finds

By Erik Lief — October 17, 2018

New Hampshire-based researchers are witnessing something abnormal and troubling in the state's northern woodlands in recent years. They report that the moose population is being threatened, with a sharp increase in fatalities among its young being an alarming "unprecedented " development.

In a new study, these scientists found that 70 percent of moose calves have died in a recent three-year period, with the cause attributed to the dramatic rise in winter ticks that feast on their blood, "causing emaciation and severe metabolic imbalance."

For the years 2014, 2015 and 2016, 179 calves aged 9-to-12 months, all tagged with radio-frequency markings, were followed and observed. Over that time researchers discovered that 125 had died, with the primary cause of death for 88 percent of them being blood loss.

Upon post-mortem examination, an average of 47,371 winter ticks were found – on each calf.......To Read More.....