New Hampshire Moose Population Still Struggling With Winter Ticks as Hunt Opens

As New Hampshire’s nine-day moose hunting season opens on Saturday, the state’s moose biologist provided an update on the population, which is still struggling with winter tick infestations up north and another scourge downstate. About two decades ago, impacts from the tick, which tend to proliferate more during warmer autumns and shorter winters and attach themselves to moose in the fall and throughout winter, began to be seen. They can attach to moose in the tens of thousands, kill young moose that lack the strength to withstand blood loss, and reduce reproduction rates in cow moose. “The population in northern New Hampshire, the core population, has been stable,” Henry Jones, the state’s moose biologist, said Tuesday. “Elsewhere, it has been declining, so overall the statewide population has declined a bit.