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"For all the interference and stupid behavior of people at salt licks, it's amazing that there aren't more injuries," says Pekins, noting that it's possible to see 10 moose at once in these roadside spots. "Nonconsumptive" use of wildlife (i.e., viewing as opposed to hunting) is an increasingly important concern for wildlife managers, who want to make sure that wild animals don't hurt humans, and conversely, that humans don't "love them to death."

In an earlier project, Pekins and Fish and Game's Judith Silverberg '00G studied the effects of wildlife viewing on moose behavior at salt licks. Anecdotal evidence had suggested that, over a summer, moose may be cagey enough to shift their salt-seeking forays to hours when "nonconsumptive wildlife users" are likely to be sleeping. But as far as the researchers could tell by looking at the pattern of human and moose visits, as long as the humans were well-behaved the animals remained unfazed by the attention.

MOOSE MOTHERING

Asked to define the essence of moose, Habeck chooses one word: indifferent. When you're as big as a moose—and the wolf has disappeared and hunting has long been banned or restricted—you're not afraid of much, except, perhaps, threats to your newborn calf. (In the study so far, roughly a quarter of the calves have failed to survive their first summer.) The one bond a moose forms is with her calf, says Scarpitti, recalling a "good mom" who hung around for several days after her calf was run over by a truck.

With a grant from the UNH Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, Habeck spent a summer studying the habitat used by mother moose during the first couple of weeks after giving birth. He found that the mother and calf often spend that time in a mossy bower ringed by evergreen trees. The moss, he believes, may diffuse the birthing odors that can attract predators like bear and coyotes, while the evergreen trees may hide the calf from view.

By the age of two weeks, says Musante, the once-wobbly calf is "flying around. Then the mother starts dragging the calf all over the place." Apparently the salt lick is a most memorable destination. An adult moose, the researchers have found, will continue to visit the one he frequented during his first summer—even when it's a 10-mile overnight jaunt from his new territory of roughly six or seven square miles. (Two of the moose in the study have gone on extraordinary hundred-mile walks.)

When a moose drives her yearling offspring away in early May, it's a sure sign that she is about to give birth. These rejected teenage moose, left to fend for themselves, are much more likely to get into accidents with motor vehicles during that period.

Moose biologist Kristine Bontaites, upper left, from N.H. Fish and Game prepares for a moose-snaring expedition. Hovering overhead in a helicopter, moonlighting cattle wranglers capture a female moose with a giant net. Within 10 minutes, they blindfold and hobble the cow; take blood and tick samples and a temperature reading; and attach a radio collar and eartags. No tranquilizer gun means no need to "babysit" a groggy moose. "Basically," says Pete Pekins '81G, "you just have an angry moose running away."

IN THE BALANCE

For the most part, hunters, land owners and tourists in northern New Hampshire seem to be peacefully coexisting with each other as well as the moose. Fish and Game models have predicted, and the UNH study seems to be confirming, that the moose population has stabilized. In order to keep it that way, wildlife managers need to understand the causes of mortality.

The number of moose killed by hunters each year—slightly under 400—is a known quantity, thanks to the carefully regulated hunt. Hunters patiently wait for years for their number to come up in the moose-hunt lottery, and there is little evidence of poaching. Another 250 moose are killed each year in automobile crashes. (Five people died in these accidents between 1998 and 2003. With their long legs and dark coloring, moose are difficult to see, especially at night. While motorists are 100 times more likely to die in a crash with another car, Bontaites points out, it is prudent to avoid overdriving one's headlights, and to brake for moose even when they are just standing by the side of the road.)

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