Moose Study Starts In Maine

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) _ Biologists in Maine have started outfitting about 70 moose with radio collars to study their mortality rates.

Biologist Lee Kantar says Maine’s moose population, at 70,000, is thriving, while other states like neighboring New Hampshire are seeing a decline.

New Hampshire’s moose population has shrunk from 7,500 in the mid-1990s to between 4,000 and 4,500.

Kantar tells the Portland Press Herald (http://bit.ly/1b4LVrn) most of Maine’s moose population roams in a colder climate than New Hampshire’s and in habitat that is free of wolves, which roam Minnesota, which also has seen a decline in moose.

Officials from Aero Tech Inc. are putting the radio collars on the moose, as in New Hampshire. Both states are sharing the expense of hiring Aero Tech’s helicopters and crew.