During the third year of a six-year moose mortality and productivity study in northern New Hampshire, roughly 45 moose cows and calves are going to be collared in the approaching weeks.

For collaring the moose, the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department and the University of New Hampshire have come in collaboration with Native Range of Elko, Nev.

New Hampshire and Maine biologists started working together, two years back, to better understand the reason behind decline in moose populations. Even this month also, dozens of moose have been collared in Maine.

New Hampshire wildlife officials said that a low-flying helicopter could be witnessed by the residents of Success, Dummer, Millsfield, Berlin, Milan, Cambridge, Second College Grant, Wentworth’s Location, and Errol during the collaring.

Net-guns and tranquilizer darts will be used for capturing the moose so that they can be collared. Collection of blood and other samples are helpful in evaluating the health of the moose. The crews will monitor the collared animals till the time the collars keep transmitting.

For the next couple of years, the moose will be tracked by the UNH students. On the death of a moose, the collars transmit a special signal, which allows researchers to reach there as soon as possible for determining the cause of death.

Fish and Game moose biologist Kristine Rines explained, “When this study is done, we will have seven years of information on calf moose mortality and how that is affected by differing tick loads and moose densities, as well as multiple years of information on adult mortality”.

Rines added they are hopeful that this data along with the one coming out of Maine will be helpful in determining the weather patterns and moose densities, resulting into increased tick mortality.