There's a scent floating around the mountainside woods at
my place. A scent neither myself nor the Moose have smelled since late last
fall. It's early spring now 40's during the day and high 20's at night, that's
the first week of April in Alaska. No daffodils yet! We still have 2 feet of
snow here on Bald Mountain.
When the snow begins to melt during the day that water can
enter some of the bear dens especially the younger ones who have not figured
out about dening on the north side of gulley’s so that don't happen. North
slopes don't get the sun in early April. The Sun hits those areas later in the
month or early May. In my book I speak about these juvenile bears that have
much to learn once they are on their own.
To the Moose, a young Grizzly smells just like an old
Grizzly and that smells like trouble. As I said before, the Moose
have not smelled this scent since last fall and now, SOME of the boys are back
in town!
Her "worried awareness" is quite evident by her
expression.
Her ears have her back covered (they are both trained in
that direction) and her eyes see a little bit ahead of her and she can see good
on both sides. The nose of a Moose is
very good too and they can scent things 100's of yards away BUT the Grizzlies
is ten times better or more!
The cows with calves are the ones that are nervous all the
time about the Grizzlies. Many Moose calves are taken by these bears each year.
In fact, there are areas where Grizzlies are prolific and decimating the Moose
populations here. Along the corridors of the Chilikadrotna and Mulchatna rivers
in western Alaska is one current example. The Moose generally make it though,
as long as the wolves don't proliferate to the point they are in the game too!
THEN the Moose ARE GONE!
I feel bad for the Moose this year. They had a rough winter
this year and now the Grizzlies are in the air...
