Before
the 1600's and the advent of European settlement, moose and caribou were
plentiful in Nova Scotia and whitetail deer were scarce.
Now, deer can be seen everywhere foraging in empty fields and along roadsides.
Even following the rough winter of 2000 which decimated the deer herds
by almost half their former number, 13,000 'anterless deer' hunting
licenses were issued by the Dept.
of Natural Resources in 2001.
Moose, on the other hand are rarely seen on the mainland, forcing hunters
to go to Cape Breton and Newfoundland to 'bag a big one'. Mainland moose
have apparently been afflicted by the same fate as the caribou.
Ever wonder what happened to Nova Scotia's caribou and moose? If you immediately
thought they've been hunted to extinction, you'd be wrong. Wolves? Coyotes?
Wrong again.
Caribou disappeared in Eastern Canada as the result of a parasite, harmless
to deer, but transported on their hooves as they travel through the woods
and ingested by grazing moose and caribou.
Stephen Clayden of the New Brunswick
Museum has written an excellent
article for "Elements" about the demise of the caribou,
in which he quotes a New Brunswick outfitter:
"The last caribou he saw, in November 1928, was 'walking in circles.
I caught and examined it without difficulty,' he notes, 'and the next
morning it was lying dead almost in the camp yard. One buck deer and two
small bull moose were found in the Nictau Lake region about that time
in a similar condition, and all were found dead later.' "
Most residents living at the time assumed that the increase in the whitetail
deer population created a shortage of food that crowded out the larger
ungulates.
According to Clayden, however, "It was not until the early 1960s
that this parasite, a tiny roundworm with the formidable name Parelaphostrongylus
tenuis, was first shown to be the cause of "moose sickness."
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Nuggets
"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The
second best time is now". Chinese Proverb Trail Stop Tree
Seedlings
"There is something infinitely healing in the repeated
refrains
of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring
after the winter." Rachel Carson
Where
on Earth is
Before
the 1600's and the advent of European settlement, moose and caribou were
plentiful in Nova Scotia and whitetail deer were scarce. 