Who's asking: Richard Bostwick, Hallowell, ME
A photo's been circulating online of two albino moose, with an attached e-mail saying the photographer had seen the two near Greenville, which is a good bit north of here, on the southern tip of Moosehead Lake.
I can't confirm or debunk the existence of these particular moose -- one Maine wildlife website I visited said the same photo had been circulating about a year ago, and that the moose were actually in Canada.
But it's possible. Albinism occurs in 1 in 100,000 moose, and more often than that when herds with the trait inbreed, as seems to have happened in southeastern Idaho. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife estimates Maine's current moose population at 29,000, so that means the chances of seeing one albino moose, much less two, are awfully low.
I still haven't seen a live moose, and it's on my list of Things to Do in 2007. You can read all about them on the Fish & Wildlife site here.
5 comments:
When I was a kid in Alaska, there was a "tame" moose named Charlie who used to hang around the post (Ft. Richardson). The only problem: there really isn't such a thing as a "tame" moose -- and those animals are BIG, particularly when they're poking their noses in your kitchen window.
We used to go "shining" for caribou (no guns, just headlights on the Toyota Landrover to reflect off thier eyes in the woods of Alaska, and our bony little-kid butts bouncing up and down on the cold, barely padded seats...) You might try that -- just don't use the blueberry mobile. You might run into an irritable moose.
Or head out West--we saw quite a number of them in Wyoming (btw. Jackson & Togwotee Mountain Lodge www.togwoteelodge.com) back in 1992.
Sue
Boy those albino moose do get around eh? :)
How is it possible that you live in Maine and have been blogging for years, yet I only find one reference in your blog for Greenville? For shame, for shame!
LOL
Bill in Greenville
My father was stationed at Ft. Richardson circa 1965-1968. We all knew about Charlie the Moose. The story we got was that his mother had been hit and killed by a driver, don't know if they were drunk or not. The soldiers on the base took care of Charlie and he became the post mascot. We saw him many times and even got to pet him. Don't know what happened to him after we left. Fun to see someone else remembers Charlie. Alaska was a lot of fun, too.
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