Moose Born In Wisconsin After 100 Year Absence

For the first time in more than a century, biologists have documented the birth of a wild moose in Wisconsin.

A radio collar attached to an adult cow moose has provided state wildlife officials with documentation of landmark event.

While there were no observations of the calf in Wisconsin, Wisconsin biologists have been tracking the calf’s mother during the spring and summer of the last two years, according to Adrian Wydeven, a wildlife biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) endangered and nongame species program.

During that time she had an established summer range in northern Forest County, then during the fall and winter, headed back to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where she had originally been collared by biologists from the Michigan DNR.

“We never saw a calf during the summer of 2002 while she was being monitored by DNR pilots, but it is very difficult to see a moose during summer from the air. We relied on the radio collar to track her, just as we rely on radio collars to track wolves, which are also difficult to see from the air during the summer,” Wydeven said.

“But after she returned to Michigan in December, Michigan DNR biologists discovered she had a calf with her when they tracked her in southern Baraga County about 45 miles northeast of her Wisconsin home range.”

The adult moose cow, which biologists identify by the number 5155, was last detected in the Upper Peninsula on March 5, 2002 and was first detected in northern Forest County on April 29. She remained in her summer home range through October 29.

“We know that moose do not normally have calves prior to about May 15 and most have their calves by mid June.” Wydeven said. “Thus it is most likely that the calf was born sometime while the moose was in Wisconsin.”

State officials estimate the Wisconsin moose population at about 20 to 40, and say that it probably varies quite a bit.

“What we’ve learned with moose 5155 is that moose can migrate between summer range in Wisconsin and winter range in Michigan. There may be other moose doing this that we have not detected. Our hope is that this moose will teach this migration pattern to her calf,” Wydeven said.

Moose once occurred across the northern third or half of Wisconsin in the mixed conifer-hardwoods forest. They were fairly common in these areas until the mid or late 1800s, but by the early 1900s were no longer found anywhere in the state.V A few isolated reports of moose occurred in northern Wisconsin in the mid 1900s, as moose from Isle Royale were moved to the Michigan mainland. In the 1960s, moose began to be seen in the northwestern part of the state as the Minnesota moose population increased.

In all, there have been more than 280 observations of moose reported to DNR biologists over the last decade.