September + October 2019 ADIRONDACK LIFE 43
Moose are enormous. Bulls weigh
between 600 and 1,200 pounds and
stand up to six feet tall at the shoulder;
cows are slightly smaller. So one would
expect the animals to jump out amid
the snowy folds north of the High Peaks
region, where we were surveying. Given
the vastness of the landscape beneath us,
however, the pilot was relying on hours-
old GPS coordinates to home in on our
quarry. Jim Stickles, a wildlife biologist
with the DEC, held up a radio receiver to
refine the search as we got closer.
“That’s a cow,” said Stickles, after
spotting a moose while the helicopter
hovered a few hundred feet above the
timberlands. “I can see the collar.”It was the first of five individual moose
or moose pairs we would spot that morn-
ing from the helicopter, which bobbed
like a bath toy as it flew low over the
hilltops and peaks.
Up close, moose can appear almost
comical, with their elongated, bulbous
noses and gangly legs. For added effect,
there’s a long flap of skin, called a bell,
which dangles from their throats. But
from the air, moose look almost sleek.
They run at high speeds, up to 35 miles
an hour, and their wide girths seemed to
weave effortlessly through dense conifer
cover in a foot and a half of snow.
During several forays by helicopter
that late winter day, 17 moose were seen