More moose are on the loose in Oregon

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, August 20, 2006

LA GRANDE, Ore. – State wildlife biologist Pat Matthews doesn’t have to see the moose to know they’re moving into Oregon in record numbers.

The 118 piles of droppings he saw on a walk along an overgrown logging road in northeastern Oregon told the tale.

There may be about 30 moose, including eight bulls, in the northeast corner of Oregon, immigrants from Idaho.

There are probably more, Matthews said.

Moose have been reported in northeastern Oregon since the 1960s, usually in ones and twos. But the animals now are probably at their highest number in state history, Matthews said.

“It is really no surprise they are finally getting into Oregon,” Matthews said.

In Idaho, the moose population climbed from 500 in 1947 to 20,000 last year, according to Idaho wildlife officials. Their numbers also have expanded in Wyoming and Utah, Matthews said.

They seem to like shrubs and foliage that bloom after logging operations and wildfires.

They have been seen swimming across the Snake River into Oregon from Idaho in recent years, said Mike Hansen, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

They appear to be spread through northeastern Oregon’s canyons and forests north of Elgin, good moose habitat.

A week ago, a driver in a sport utility vehicle ran into and killed a year-old cow on I-84 near Meacham. The driver was unhurt, but as moose numbers rise, so could the danger of accidents.

Matthews monitored the animals last winter, sometimes tracking them through snow, at other times keeping an eye on them from a small airplane. He found them to be generally shy.

“I tried to get close several times to get pictures,” he said. “Whenever I tracked them and tried to approach, they were gone.”

The Oregon moose are a smaller than the Alaska Yukon moose, he said. Bulls can weigh 1,000 pounds, compared with 1,800 pounds for the larger Alaska variety, which can stand 6 feet tall at the shoulder.