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Sad about the moose

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by flutterby, Apr 11, 2013.

  1. flutterby

    flutterby Active Member

    Theres a story about a moose wandering into a grocery store in Smithers to have a nice apple or two. It died from what sounds like a tranquilizer overdose after the wildlife people darted and removed it from the store.

    What really gets to me is all the ticks he was covered in. I wonder how we can help our dear wildlife with the terrible scourge of ticks. They try in vain to rub them off or drown them but nothing works.
     
  2. flutterby

    flutterby Active Member

    Sorry, it's in today's province
     
  3. lumix

    lumix Full Member

     
  4. milquetoast

    milquetoast Senior Member

    That's sad. The problem is that they're winter ticks. Apparently the moose get sick from both blood loss and the cold. They end up losing patches of hair by rubbing against trees because they're not able to groom themselves like deer do.

    Someone posted a picture of the moose on facebook:
    [​IMG]

    A few years ago there was a bear that went into a Subway in Kitimat.
     
  5. Night Of GuardianS

    Night Of GuardianS Active Member

    That moose is a cutie. Poor thing.
     
  6. flutterby

    flutterby Active Member

    Winter ticks? I think they would be year round.
     
  7. milquetoast

    milquetoast Senior Member

    Winter meaning that's when they start appearing on hosts. The ticks have a one year life cycle and are only mature enough to start feeding in January and February.

    Winter's definitely not a good time to be losing blood and patches of hair, especially when you're an animal that depends on it for warmth.

    I think most ticks feed in the summer, hence they call these ones winter ticks.
     
  8. flutterby

    flutterby Active Member

    G*d that was confusing cheese. Ok, your last line should read " I think most other ticks feed in the summer, hence they call these ones winter ticks.

    So you're saying that there is a tick that lives on moose that because it, the tick, is born and feeds in winter is called the Winter Tick?"
    So these ticks, apparently, jump off their warm hosts en masse, in the spring to lay eggs on the ground.

    anyway, who cares? It's still gross and sad that moose have to suffer with this.
     
  9. milquetoast

    milquetoast Senior Member

    Wow, what's with the hostility? The line is fine the way it is because the meaning is implicit and deducible via inference. The sentence is only confusing if you take it in isolation. Regardless, sorry for the confusion.
     
  10. 6u-huo.l.uV

    6u-huo.l.uV Moderator Staff Member

    Huh. I heard about the moose too, but didn't read into it. This conversation got me to look up the ticks, though. This seems pretty legit for the life cycle.
    tl;dr version is that:
    1. eggs laid in ~May
    2. eggs hatch in late summer
    3. dormancy and setting themselves up into trees
    4. drop onto animals and feast
     
  11. why don't you consider ticks part of our 'dear wildlife'? just because they aren't cute doesn't mean they aren't important in nature
     
  12. flutterby

    flutterby Active Member

    That did cross my mind. A "purist" might say that ticks are just a part of nature and we need to let it run it's course, but I personally think that's b.s.

    I don't know what the solution is but I'm not advocating a scientific one per se. I wonder if ingested tea tree oil would make moose blood unpalatable or maybe Citronella. Realistically they'd have to eat tea tree oil a few times ie. a new staple.
     
  13. flutterby

    flutterby Active Member

    And it's not about what is "important in nature". It's about an imbalance that is occurring. There is an increase in ticks causing a de crease in moose and this needs to be brought back into balance.
     
  14. nature balances itself. human intervention is what
    throws it off in the first place
     
  15. flutterby

    flutterby Active Member

    Yeah and when humans take it out of balance, sometimes it takes humans to put it back
     
  16. flutterby

    flutterby Active Member

    I guess we shouldn't clean the plastic out of the ocean then
     
  17. stupid analogy ticks aren't man-made
    moose aren't even endangered where is the 'imbalance'? humans routinely hunt them
     
  18. flutterby

    flutterby Active Member

    Actually moose and other wildlife are dying here and in the States. It's such a big problem down south that they are thinking of using chemical pesticides. Ticks are an environmental problem whose overpopulation, it could be argued, is triggered by global warming.

    The analogy stands.
     
    cheeseshredder likes this.
  19. milquetoast

    milquetoast Senior Member

  20. i copy and paste from this site http://srd.alberta.ca/fishwildlife/WildlifeDiseases/documents/Winter_ticks.pdf
    i trust the university of alberta more than you ;)

    "Generally, winter tick is not a management concern ... Major die-offs of moose in Alberta seem to occur every 12-15 years ... The die-off of moose removed not only moose but many many ticks from the ecosystem and also reduced some of the ecological pressure on the stressed vegetation."

    sorry but you are wrong here flutterby
    'reducing stress on vegetation' sounds like nature is balancing itself circle of life!
     
    cheeseshredder likes this.

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