Could there be a moose on Little Bear Island?

[escaped from NJ]

On Oct 15, while the rain let up for a few hours in the morning, I was outside planting bulbs and found animal tracks. Since the ground was fairly soft from the rain, they were really set deep. They were hoof prints and the front two legs were about a foot apart and a foot back (from the front print). The back legs were five feet back from the front set of prints. There were three sets of prints and they went right into the lake! I took pictures but they really didn't turn out too well. Hopeing someone knows their animal prints and can tell me if this could this be a moose?

[spotsink]

As the subject says... bad pictures are better than no pictures... if you can post the photos that you have, I'm guessing that it may help identify the tracks you found... ;)

BTW: we are also residents of Little Bear... what part of he island did you find these tracks on? :confused:

[hazelnut]

Well I can only tell you what I saw last year. I was boating out to Cow Island where I live and..... LO AND BEHOLD (I have this on videotape) I see a full grown female moose swimming from Com Island towards the mainland.... This was 4th of July weekend on a Friday afternoon so it wasn't like it was a quiet weekday or anything. Still one of the neatest things I have on tape.... My neighbor did not believe me until I said "oh wait a sec...." then I produced the tape... he watched it and said... "I'll be damned... I've been coming to the Island for 40 + years and I've never seen anything like that." So my answer is..... ANYTHING is possible..... It was probably a MOOSE. They swim!!!! :)

[Misty Blue]

Hi Garden Stater!

Was there any other evidence left behind? Moose, er-ah, droppings are smooth, dark brown and about the size of a walnut.

Had one swim across Braun Bay and walk right up our beach a few years ago! Cool!

Had a cow on our leach field some time ago and you know me, I just had to check her out. It took a couple of hours but I managed to ease my way up to her and pet her nose. CHILDREN DO NOT ATEMPT THIS AT HOME! Stupid, sure but I have the memory and the pics to prove it!

Misty Blue

[Grant]

Sounds like a moose -- especially with the tracks leading to the water. They are good swimmers.

As for the tracks, here's a decent shot of a moose track in dried mud, with my foot (size 11) as a reference point:

http://www.pbase.com/gfevans/image/38566396

And as for the, er ah, *droppings* mentioned above, they look like this:

http://www.pbase.com/gfevans/image/38566398

(And don't ask why I pay for online storage space for digital photos of moose dookie...) ;)

[Frank]

There was a moose strolling through the yards on Governor's Island a couple of weeks ago. Several people got some good pictures of it. Apparently, he (?) swam away - probably doesn't like the bridge.

- Frank

[John A. Birdsall]

I hope that moose leaving govonors island observed the no wake zone

[escaped from NJ]

Grant, thanks for the pictures....the hoof print was much smaller than your picture. It was a little bigger than the size of my fist and had 3 knuckles (I think 3). So, maybe it wasn't a moose. Maybe it was just a deer running full speed into the lake? It would have been a tough landing as the water is only a couple feet deep there.

Thanks for the dropping photo (I can't believe I am saying that.) because I did see these droppings about a month earlier while hiking behind our cottage. (I thought they were bear droppings but they definitely looked just like this.)

Spotsink, I saw all this on the north side of Little Bear Island. If you look on the Bitzer chart, it is right where the B is on the north side.

[secondcurve]

Grant:

Thanks for opening up your photo albums to the board. I'm not sure if you meant to do that or not. I was wondering about the various bass photos. They seem to be quite old. In one shot there was a fellow wearing a t-shirt with a date of 198-. The last digit was blocked by the fish. When were these pictures taken? How much did these fish weigh? Are they Large Mouth or Small Mouth bass? They appear to be Large Mouth. They look like real beauties. Do you still catch fish in this class? Do you see a lot of these size fish when you are diving?

By the way, that is a beautiful dog you have.

[Grant]

Hi --

No mistake. I post photos for fun.

The bass are smallies. Taken in spring 1984 -- about the time the Lake went higher than it is now and went over the docks. Yes, I hate to admit it, but we fished the beds back then. That being said, the smallie population back then was way healthier than now. We let most go, but did harvest some. We do occasionally catch some of that caliber these days -- but not the 5 pounders. The big ones in the photos were just around five pounds. I see some fish in this range when diving in Winni, but not a lot. Then again, water magnifies everything -- making everything look ~30% larger and closer, so I guess I seen some '8 pound' bass in the Lake recently. ;)

The guy in the photo is my cousin, same age as me, who also grew up fishing Winnipesaukee. In fact, now he runs a very successful charter fishing operation on the gulf Coast of Florida -- so if anyone from the forum wants to catch some serious grouper, cobia, amberjack, etc., let me know. He's also a big-time bass fisherman, having spent a number of years on the pro circuit.

Thanks for the comment on the dog. Good boy. Sleeping at my feet as I type. Loves the Lake. Gets serious air off the end of our dock.

gfe

[kunamola]

Would it make you feel better about storing your poopie pictures if you called it scat? No?, well would you believe some of us have actually bought books full of pictures of the stuff just for identification purposes? Sad, but true. :look:

[secondcurve]

Grant:

Thanks for the comments on the fish. Upon closer examination of the pictures, it is definitely clear they are smallies. Was it legal to take fish off their beds back in 84 or were you just young and foolish? My guess is the latter. I did things back then that I wouldn't even consider now, also. It's funny how age adds to one's wisdom.

How about trout/salmon fishing, do you fish for these species? Do you see a lot of trout on your dives? My guess is that they are generally deeper than you dive in the summer. Have you ever been to the deepest part of the lake on a dive? It must be god awful cold and dark down there.

Thnaks again for the pictures.

[Grant]

As far as I know, they did not have specific regulations regarding bass on beds at that time, but I can't say for sure. Good thing is that we released 90% of what we caught, and we didn't catch them all on beds anyway. But now I don't even think about fishing the beds. Guilty as charged.

As far as diving goes, no -- haven't seen many trout while diving during the summer, although you can see them and the salmon schooling in the spring. Deepest I've gone in Winnipesaukee is only about 70 feet -- not much to see beyond there (much shallower than we do elsewhere). The deepest parts of Winni go much further. But if I can't see, why bother? In my opinion, the best diving in the Lake is between 20 and 50 feet. After all, it;s not how deep, but *where* you dive.

Wish I was diving up there this weekend. Heading up, but no dive buddies. Plus, the reg is headed back to the shop for a little tune up...