Moose Returning To Northeast Oregon - Eugene Register-Guard

[hatrack]

"Move over elk. There's a bigger critter in town. Moose, North America's largest game animal, are moving into northeast Oregon. If moose establish a permanent antler-hold there, they will accomplish through migration what the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife once failed to do through the importation of Alaskan moose.

A member of the deer family, moose are generally associated with Maine, Minnesota, British Columbia and other northern regions. Both Washington and Idaho, however, have enough resident moose to allow limited hunting opportunities. The fact that those populations are apparently expanding their range southward is catching many Oregonians by surprise.

EDIT

"We've had quite a few reports and sightings, just in the past year," said Patrick Matthews, the ODFW's assistant district wildlife biologist in La Grande. "Since April 2004, we've had 29 different sightings (of moose) here in northeast Oregon."

One of the sightings created quite a stir. "We even had a young one right here in La Grande," Matthews said. "walking around town for a few days" - not unlike the young moose seen before each episode of the old television series "Northern Exposure." According to the ODFW's weekly wildlife viewing report for the Northeast Zone, that particular moose moved through La Grande and wound up south of the Elkhorn Wildlife Area, then moved back through La Grande later in the month on its way north. Other moose sightings occurred near Timothy Springs in northern Union County. Matthews said the "small core population of moose" living in the Blue Mountains most likely got there by crossing the plains between Spokane and Moscow, Idaho."

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/01/13/f6.od.mooseinoregon.0613.html