Moosewatch 2021 PART 2

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

The primary goal of a Moosewatch Expedition on Isle Royale is to gather data on moose bones in the field and to bring some of the bones back for study. 

Since the study was suspended due to Covid last year and since additional wolves were relocated to the island, we expected to find more moose bones. 

And we were not disappointed.

With each find, we searched the area for all the bones we could find, recorded which ones were present, inspected bones for signs of pathology (e.g. arthritis, healed breaks -- these bones would also be recovered for study), recorded data on location of find and condition of bones. Then, we would pack up the skull, mandibles, and a rear metatarsal. This last bone grows to its full length in the first year of a moose's life, so measuring it gives a wealth of information on how that first year went for the moose (e.g. was food abundant/scarce?).

Our last find was on the hike in to Windigo to meet up with other teams and deliver our bones. This moose was killed a few weeks ago, so we smelled it before we found it.

Every bone was present except for one scapula.

Fox love to run around with the bones, so it was probably carted off by a fox.

Here's my team, 

the second all-women Moosewatch Team:

(L>R: April, Joceline, Zan, and Julie)