Fish, Wildlife & Parks use helicopters to tag moose

More than a dozen moose in the Cabinet Mountains and Fisher River areas were anesthetized, examined and fitted with GPS collars last month as part of an ongoing study being conducted by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.

The two-day project utilized a pair of helicopters, with the crew in the first chopper spotting moose and marking coordinates for the second, which brought in biologists to work with the animals on the ground. Fourteen cows were darted and tranquilized, allowing the biologists to conduct their examinations and attach the collars.

The study is now in its third year with seven more planned. Nineteen moose were collared over the first two years; organizers hope to maintain a total of 30 collared moose over the course of the study.

Goals of the project are to track moose movements and reproduction along with the effects of factors such as disease, predation and weather in three areas in Montana – the Cabinets and Fisher River area, the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains and the Big Hole region. It’s hoped that data collected in the study will help clarify conflicting anecdotal evidence about trends in moose populations, said Libby-based FWP biologist Tonya Chilton-Radandt.

In various places across the moose’s range in the United States, reports have indicated plummeting populations, while in other areas surveys have indicated healthy or increasing numbers, Chilton-Radandt said.

“They put it all together and said we need to do something, get ahead of the curve,” she said.

After a moose is darted from the air, biologists spend about 20 minutes taking blood and fecal samples, using ultrasound technology to measure the amount of fat on the animal’s rump, checking for parasites such as winter ticks and attaching a GPS collar before injecting the moose with a drug that quickly counteracts the effect of the tranquilizer.

“It can be maybe a minute or two and they’re back up,” said FWP research biologist Nick DeCesare.

In addition to providing information on the animal’s overall health, blood and fecal samples are used to test for pregnancy. The collars placed on the moose broadcast one location per day, and that information will be used over the course of the study to track the animals’ movements and the survival of both cows and calves.

“It’s nice with moose because they’re sort of solitary and they have that cow-calf bond for a year,” DeCesare said.

Moose typically live for about 12 years in the wild, but individuals have been known to survive for more than 20 years.

Follow-up work on the collared animals will include the study of additional fecal samples, but the biologists will keep their distance.

“After they’re collared we don’t want to ever touch them again,” said FWP wildlife research technician Jesse Newby.