The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is starting a multi-year study to monitor moose.
Starting this month, researchers will start placing radio collars on up to 60 wild moose to follow their movements and determine their causes of mortality. The study will run through 2019.
Biologists hope to better understand whether Vermont's moose calves are surviving to adulthood. They want to know what is causing the death of any moose, including those killed by predators, and those that die from brainworm infections or stress caused by winter tick parasites. Biologists will also examine moose reproduction.
New Hampshire, Maine, and New York are currently using the same methods to examine their moose herds.
Vermont's moose herd has decreased from an estimated high of over 5,000 in the early 2000s to roughly 2,200 today, a deliberate reduction through hunting.
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