8/13/06

Email from Sarah Boyd:

There is a camp off of Perkins Clearing Called "Big Brook" originated by The Boyd's.  Well, this past Sunday 8/13/06, about a quarter mile there was a "BIG BULL MOOSE", seen he had Velvet covering his masive antlers and I was so over whelmed with the excitement of seeing him.  The experience was shall I say PRICELESS...
 
I just wanted to give you an update on a sighting.
 
 Thanks
 The Boyd's  



9/22/06

Newspaper Article:

Moose Mating Leads To Several Area Collisions

The Post Star, Glens Falls, NY

Three moose have died after collisions with motor vehicles, including one young cow that survived a Sept. 13 run-in with an Amtrak train in Putnam but was euthanized because of its injuries.

Ken Kogut, the state Department of Environmental Conservation's regional wildlife manager, said a young bull moose died earlier this month when hit by a tractor-trailer on the Northway in Clinton County, and a young bull was killed in a collision with a car Wednesday night in Lake Placid.

Kogut said three in a span of two weeks is a high toll as moose enter their most active phase of the year, early fall mating season.

"We normally see three or four killed in a season. To have three when it (the rut) is just starting is a lot," he said.
It's of particular note in areas of the region with large moose populations, such as western Saratoga County and central Hamilton County, he said. The area around Lake Desolation in Saratoga County has one of the state's heaviest moose concentrations.

"They're very active right now because they're entering the peak of the rut," Kogut said.

The moose-train collision involved an Amtrak train, and left the moose seriously injured on the side of the tracks. A conservation officer who was called to the scene euthanized the animal, but it was unclear if the train was delayed.

The driver in Wednesday's car crash in Lake Placid was lucky to walk away after the moose landed on the roof of her Saturn

station wagon, flattening it, Kogut said.
"She was very lucky," he said. "The car cut the moose off at the knees."

Last month, a moose was found dead in a pond in Dresden in the Lake George Wild Forest. Kogut said it appeared to have died of natural causes.

The state's moose population has slowly been growing as growth in New England has forced many of them to spread west.

DEC moose specialist Al Hicks said there are "hundreds" of moose in New York, but it was impossible to estimate the number.

"We've been getting lots of reports this year of cows with calves," he said.
The population has grown to the point where the DEC quit actively monitoring them in 1997, Hicks said.

Kogut said a massive bull of more than 1,000 pounds was photographed in western Saratoga County over the summer by someone who had set up a trail camera that took a picture of it as it wandered by.