Latest news with #NewHampshireFishandGame
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Zombie moose': As climate change shortens winters, ticks ravage New England's moose population
A bull moose grazes in New Hampshire during the spring. (Photo by) Every fall, winter ticks in New England sit on shrubs or other plants waiting for a large animal to pass by so they can latch on and begin sucking out blood. This has a huge impact on the area's moose, wildlife biologists say. 'They basically become zombies and die,' Eric Orff, a New Hampshire-based wildlife biologist, said. 'We have zombie moose.' According to estimates from New Hampshire Fish and Game, the Granite State's moose population peaked in the late 1990s at around 7,000 to 8,000 moose. It has since declined to roughly 3,000 to 4,000. Most tick species move from host to host frequently, but winter ticks find a moose, deer, or other animal around November and extract their blood for the entirety of winter. And it's not just one or a couple ticks on each host. Rather, hundreds or thousands of ticks often latch onto a host. This is a process called questing and it has a huge effect on moose, particularly calves. 'April is the month of death for calves,' Orff, who works as a field biologist at the National Wildlife Federation and serves as vice president of the New Hampshire Wildlife Federation, said. 'The adult ticks are feeding one more time before they fall off and they basically drain the moose's supply of blood.' Around April, the female ticks fall off their hosts to lay their eggs. If they land on snow as opposed to dry land, the eggs are less fruitful. However, as climate change represses winter weather, tick populations have boomed. 'Over the last 20 years, instead of one winter out of six or eight or 10 being truncated, now, a majority of them are,' Orff said. 'So what has been found in more recent moose studies, including those done in New Hampshire and in Maine and Vermont the last two decades, is that it really significantly impacts the moose calves born that previous spring.' While adult moose are better able to fend off the tick infestations, he said, 70% of calves don't make it to 1 year old. And this also affects adult female moose. Orff, who has been studying moose and other wildlife for decades, said that when he and his colleagues began this research in the 1980s, nearly all older female moose gave birth to two calves. Now, he said, less than half the females even become pregnant. He said this is a result of being underweight from the ticks, but also because climate change is making summers warmer, which results in them eating less. Underweight moose are less likely to give birth. 'It's really a double whammy,' he said. A third factor, he said, is that south of the White Mountains brain worms have proliferated. While moose populations have plummeted, white-tail deer populations have nearly tripled from about 40,000 in the early 1980s to around 100,000 to 120,000 in the southern half of the state due to milder winters, he said. Brain worms are common in deer, and while those brain worms don't harm the deer, they can be fatal to moose. Orff noted the economic costs of lower moose populations. He said people used to travel to the North Country specifically to see the moose. 'Moose viewing in New Hampshire for a period of years was a $10-million-a-year industry,' he said. 'I don't know if there's any companies that still do it. I think there are. But you used to be able to go out and, in a night, see a dozen or a half dozen moose at least. Now they may go several hours and see no moose.' These die-offs also cause ecological issues. Henry Jones, moose project leader for Fish and Game, said moose carcasses serve as a food source for scavengers, which are seeing rising numbers in the wake of this population collapse. Jones said the past two years have been particularly severe for tick infestations. To address this, the state is issuing more hunting permits. Jones said tick populations rise when the moose population has high density. By killing off moose, the survivors fare better, he said. The state is also working with the University of New Hampshire to study the conditions in which ticks proliferate best. Jones said this is all about 'keeping them from getting really high density and causing this kind of cyclic relationship of lots of tick mortality.' However, the hunting strategy still results in dead moose and low populations. Orff noted the conundrum. 'I guess that's the debate,' Orff said. 'Is it better to have far fewer moose and less sickly moose? … Baby moose who drop dead from no blood in April or taking some of them out that will be utilized by hunters eating them?' Jones said the state is acting based on the wishes of citizens. 'We did a public survey to understand what the residents want with the moose population in 2024,' Jones said. 'People want there to be the same or more moose, but they don't want there to be more moose if they're unhealthy.' Still, Orff said none of these are a true solution to the overall problem. Moose will continue dying, he said, until we put an end to humans' warming of the planet. This story was originally published by New Hampshire Bulletin. Like Maine Morning Star, New Hampshire Bulletin is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Hampshire Bulletin maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Dana Wormald for questions: info@ SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Zombie moose': As climate change shortens winters, ticks ravage New Hampshire's moose population
A bull moose grazes in New Hampshire during the spring. (Photo by) Every fall, winter ticks in New England sit on shrubs or other plants waiting for a large animal to pass by so they can latch on and begin sucking out blood. This has a huge impact on the area's moose, wildlife biologists say. 'They basically become zombies and die,' Eric Orff, a New Hampshire-based wildlife biologist, said. 'We have zombie moose.' According to estimates from New Hampshire Fish and Game, the Granite State's moose population peaked in the late 1990s at around 7,000 to 8,000 moose. It has since declined to roughly 3,000 to 4,000. Most tick species move from host to host frequently, but winter ticks find a moose, deer, or other animal around November and extract their blood for the entirety of winter. And it's not just one or a couple ticks on each host. Rather, hundreds or thousands of ticks often latch onto a host. This is a process called questing and it has a huge effect on moose, particularly calves. 'April is the month of death for calves,' Orff, who works as a field biologist at the National Wildlife Federation and serves as vice president of the New Hampshire Wildlife Federation, said. 'The adult ticks are feeding one more time before they fall off and they basically drain the moose's supply of blood.' Around April, the female ticks fall off their hosts to lay their eggs. If they land on snow as opposed to dry land, the eggs are less fruitful. However, as climate change represses winter weather, tick populations have boomed. 'Over the last 20 years, instead of one winter out of six or eight or 10 being truncated, now, a majority of them are,' Orff said. 'So what has been found in more recent moose studies, including those done in New Hampshire and in Maine and Vermont the last two decades, is that it really significantly impacts the moose calves born that previous spring.' While adult moose are better able to fend off the tick infestations, he said, 70% of calves don't make it to 1 year old. And this also affects adult female moose. Orff, who has been studying moose and other wildlife for decades, said that when he and his colleagues began this research in the 1980s, nearly all older female moose gave birth to two calves. Now, he said, less than half the females even become pregnant. He said this is a result of being underweight from the ticks, but also because climate change is making summers warmer, which results in them eating less. Underweight moose are less likely to give birth. 'It's really a double whammy,' he said. A third factor, he said, is that south of the White Mountains brain worms have proliferated. While moose populations have plummeted, white-tail deer populations have nearly tripled from about 40,000 in the early 1980s to around 100,000 to 120,000 in the southern half of the state due to milder winters, he said. Brain worms are common in deer, and while those brain worms don't harm the deer, they can be fatal to moose. Orff noted the economic costs of lower moose populations. He said people used to travel to the North Country specifically to see the moose. 'Moose viewing in New Hampshire for a period of years was a $10-million-a-year industry,' he said. 'I don't know if there's any companies that still do it. I think there are. But you used to be able to go out and, in a night, see a dozen or a half dozen moose at least. Now they may go several hours and see no moose.' These die-offs also cause ecological issues. Henry Jones, moose project leader for Fish and Game, said moose carcasses serve as a food source for scavengers, which are seeing rising numbers in the wake of this population collapse. Jones said the past two years have been particularly severe for tick infestations. To address this, the state is issuing more hunting permits. Jones said tick populations rise when the moose population has high density. By killing off moose, the survivors fare better, he said. The state is also working with the University of New Hampshire to study the conditions in which ticks proliferate best. Jones said this is all about 'keeping them from getting really high density and causing this kind of cyclic relationship of lots of tick mortality.' However, the hunting strategy still results in dead moose and low populations. Orff noted the conundrum. 'I guess that's the debate,' Orff said. 'Is it better to have far fewer moose and less sickly moose? … Baby moose who drop dead from no blood in April or taking some of them out that will be utilized by hunters eating them?' Jones said the state is acting based on the wishes of citizens. 'We did a public survey to understand what the residents want with the moose population in 2024,' Jones said. 'People want there to be the same or more moose, but they don't want there to be more moose if they're unhealthy.' Still, Orff said none of these are a true solution to the overall problem. Moose will continue dying, he said, until we put an end to humans' warming of the planet.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Yahoo
Watch: Man Wrestling a Wild Turkey in Cemetery ‘Not a Good Look,' Says Investigating Game Warden
If there was ever a video that showcased why a hunt might be legal but not ethical, it's this one from a country cemetery in the Northeast. On Sunday the New Hampshire Fish and Game law enforcement division took to Facebook asking for the public's help identifying a camo-clad man who was videoed wrestling a flopping wild turkey behind a gravestone and dragging it into the woods. While the gunshot itself wasn't filmed by bystanders, the aftermath was recorded by a turkey hunter who heard it and stepped out of the woods to investigate, Lieutenant Adam Cheney of NHFG law enforcement tells Outdoor Life. .embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 200%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; } The hunter began recording when he saw what looked like a poacher who had mortally wounded a wild turkey on the grounds of the 5-acre cemetery. In the 10-second clip, you can see a man in head-to-toe camo, including a face mask, crawling after a violently flopping turkey, feathers flying as he tries to get a grip on it. When he finally gets hold of its legs, the man scuttles backward, trying to keep a low profile behind the headstones. There was also a pedestrian walking her dog along the road, says Cheney, although the woman appeared not to notice what was going on. The cemetery is adjacent to the Freewill Baptist Church on Clough Hill Road, outside of Loudon. Although the law isn't listed in state game regulations, discharging a gun is illegal in New Hampshire cemeteries since they are considered public gathering places. The properties surrounding the cemetery are private, according to onX Hunt, but it's legal to hunt private property that isn't posted in New Hampshire (this is common in the Northeast). According to the initial request for information, the man in the video 'was dropped off by a late-model, black full-sized pickup.' 'Ethically? It's road hunting and it's something we try to deter people from doing because it leads to instances like this,' says Cheney. 'They see a turkey or a deer and they get zoomed right in and they don't think what they're doing, and it ends up being this when it really shouldn't be.' While law enforcement initially stated in the Facebook post that the man had poached the turkey in the cemetery, that no longer seems to be the case. Preliminary investigations have revealed that the man may have shot the turkey outside the cemetery boundary and then retrieved it on the property, Cheney tells Outdoor Life. 'It does look like it was legally taken, but ethically it's something hunters should keep driving by and leave it alone,' says Cheney, noting that because the investigation remains open he cannot share too many details. Cheney has additional interviews to conduct Monday and, in the meantime, K-9 units have been investigating the incident site to corroborate these claims. After officials posted the video to Facebook, Cheney says the volume of tips to their agency and social pressure on the man in the video were enough that he came forward to law enforcement. 'It's just a shame. But I am glad the video got out there, that certainly helped us because it put a lot of pressure on the person who shot [the turkey] because it kind of scared him because he started getting a lot of threats … He came right to us because he was getting inundated with calls and threats and 'what the hell did you do' type stuff. Read Next: The 7 Biggest Turkey Hunting Mistakes That Will Keep You From Punching Your Tag Cheney says law enforcement plans to issue a statement Tuesday. Even if there was no crime committed, he urges hunters to be mindful of how their behavior appears to non-hunters and to help report anything that looks questionable. 'Anybody who sees something like that going on, especially with the accessibility of phones nowadays, if you can get any kind of video of the person or especially the vehicle or the license plate is very important. But anything like helps, definitely. I'm very thankful for the quick response from lots of people making phone calls and trying to help out.'
Miami Herald
02-05-2025
- Miami Herald
Hunter accidentally shoots partner while aiming for turkey, NH officials say
A turkey hunter was shot in the face by his partner, New Hampshire officials said. On May 1, New Hampshire Fish and Game received a report of a shooting in Madison, according to a Facebook post by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Law Enforcement Division and Operation Game Thief. The two already killed a turkey earlier in the day and began searching in a different area, officials said. The pair eventually got separated and were on opposite sides of a wooded area when a turkey passed through, officials said. The man, not knowing his partner was nearby, fired a shot and pellets from the shotgun blast struck the hunter in the face and torso, officials said. Although he had multiple wounds, none of them were life-threatening, officials said. The two called 911 and walked back to their car, where an ambulance met them to transport the victim to a hospital, officials said. The investigation remains ongoing, the release said. Madison is about a 70-mile drive northeast of Concord.
Boston Globe
08-04-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Injured Canadian hiker rescued in windy conditions in White Mountains after falling off trail, officials say
Several rescuers were injured in the effort, officials said. 'The weather was terrible and the conditions were potentially life threatening,' New Hampshire Fish and Game said. '[Rescuers] endured less than hospitable weather conditions to save the life of this hiker.' William Tessier, 29, of Carignan, Quebec, was hiking with four companions when he slipped in icy conditions and slid several feet off Jewell Trail before striking an object, officials said. Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up Tessier made an emergency call for help around 3:45 p.m., immediately after he was injured, officials said. Advertisement Rescuers reached out to Cog Railway, who offered to provide a train for rescuers, allowing them to skip a nearly three mile hike up the Jewell Trail in rainy, icy, and windy conditions. The Cog transported rescuers in two separate groups, after which rescuers hiked nearly a mile to Tessier's location. Rescuers faced 'high winds and icy conditions across the ridge above 5,000 feet elevation the whole time,' New Hampshire Fish and Game said. The first group of rescuers reached Tessier just before 7:30 p.m., officials said. Officials treated Tessier for a leg injury, shoulder injury, and hypothermia then placed him in a litter and carried him uphill back across Gulfside Trail to the train tracks known as Skyline, officials said. Advertisement After carrying Tessier uphill in strong headwinds, rescuers returned to the train at 10:15 p.m., officials said. Tessier and the rescue team arrived at the Base Station thirty minutes later, officials said. Tessier was then transferred into the Twin Mountain Ambulance and transported to Littleton Regional Healthcare for treatment, officials said. 'Without the dedicated SAR volunteers from AVSAR, PEMI SAR, MRS, and the Cog Railway's willingness to help, this rescue mission would not have gone as well as it did,' New Hampshire Fish and Game said. Sarah Mesdjian can be reached at
