MooseWatch 2025

This month, I completed my 

10th MooseWatch Expedition 

on Isle Royale. 

During the week, we searched for moose bones and shed antlers, 

while collecting data on other species whose lives are interwoven with moose and wolves (like snowshoe hares and gray jays). 

Wolf print

This  is the longest-running predator/prey wildlife study in the world.
  
It has been ongoing since 1958....so this is its 67th year!

JP on antler seat

The weather this week ranged from the 30s to the 80s! We spent time cooling off in streams...something I never thought we'd do in May.

My team cooling off in a stream

A rainy morning in the field

Stacy finds a shed!

This is the first time my team found 40 sheds!!
We did 48 miles total, 21 off-trail!

Fancy lunch and antler plate

We had some warm days!

Processing a moose skeleton in the field

Karen finds her first shed!

The scientists leading the study are led by Dr. Rolf Peterson who has led the study since 1975. 
I'd love to hear him interviewed on Ologies with Alie Ward!

Dr. Rolf Peterson goes over our finds at the end of expedition

Dinner at our favorite place after expedition

Sometimes a set of shed antlers are found

For the past six years, I've been a team leader. 

My team!

This study is now supported by the Wolf Moose Foundation. 

Consider making a donation to support this amazing work.

Moosewatch 2021 Part 3

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/

You don't have to hike far on Isle Royale before you come upon balsam fir trees that look like the photos below:

This tree is the primary food source for moose in the winter. As you can imagine, as the moose population expands, the competition for balsam branches increases.

A prolonged winter can also decrease the chances of a moose making it to spring.

On this year's Moosewatch, my team recovered bones from 8 moose, a few of which were showing signs of starvation.

Scientists have been studying the interaction of moose and wolves on Isle Royale for 63 years now. The most recent annual report can be found here.

And here's a sunset from Isle Royale.

 

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)

 

Moosewatch 2021 PART 1

 

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/

I just completed my SIXTH Moosewatch Expedition collecting bones on Isle Royale for the Moose/Wolf Study. This is the longest-running predator/prey study ever done (at over 60 years).

Along the way in our searching for bones, we also gather data on other wildlife and also take measurements and locations of shed moose antlers.

My team came across 22 sheds ranging from massive to tiny:

Julie shows off the range of our finds:

April shows off our tiny find:

Joceline discovered an ancient antler: 

Sometimes...antlers are still attached to a massive, buried skull:

More to follow on this amazing expedition...

Looking Back on 2019

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

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile adventures 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/

Well, 2019 went by quickly!

I had over a dozen speaking engagements, including:

Quiet Adventure Symposium at Michigan State University

Schoolcraft College's "Coffee & Conversations" series
Many libraries and community centers

See my 2020 speaking engagements here or in the sidebar to the right.
I'm honored to be a feature speaker at Lakeside Chautauqua, and re-booked at Schoolcraft College and the Quiet Adventure Symposium.

It was my honor to lead an all-women team of hikers on a Moosewatch Expedition on Isle Royale in May (I'll do this again in 2020).

My 2019 team

And I did a lot of hiking on my own this year, exploring places I know well, 

and some trails new to me.

Trail along the Boardman River

Empire Bluff Trail

Jordan River Valley Trail

I hope you had a wonderful 2019.

Happy trails to you all in 

2020!

May you have many adventures waiting for you in this new decade.

Antlers! (8th in a series about Isle Royale)

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

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile adventures 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 objective on a Moosewatch Expedition on Isle Royale is to find and gather moose bones.

But teams also gather data from the antlers moose shed every winter. 

Today, there are over 2,000 moose on the island and about half of them are bulls. Bulls grow a fresh set of antlers every year. Antlers are fast-growing and are covered in "velvet" in the spring. This covering conveys blood and nutrients to the growing bone (yes, antlers are classified as bone tissue). Once they are fully formed, moose will scrape off the velvet and get ready to spar with other males for the right to pass on their genes.

Then, at the end of the year, bull moose shed their antlers. They are scattered all over Isle Royale. This year, my team found 38 shed antlers including several matched pair.

Teams measure and mark all found antlers (Julie and Joceline)

Joceline holds a classic matched set of antlers

And April holds another pair!

Sometimes, teams find a skull with antlers still attached 

(This team was the first all-women team to hike a Moosewatch Expedition!)

Camp Life on Isle Royale (6th in a series about Isle Royale)

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

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile adventures 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/

This May, I hiked my fifth Moosewatch Expedition on Isle Royale. 

And this time, I was thrilled to be the leader of the first all-women team (in photo below: Joceline, April, Me, and Julie).

Our team covered 45 miles and had three basecamps for the week. Here's a glimpse into camp life on Isle Royale:

Heating water on the Solo Stove for morning coffee is the best way to wake the team!

Breakfast oatmeal fuels us of the day

Hot bevs are essential in the morning

Fun conversations happen in the camp 'kitchen'

Our last day, we hiked 11 miles and got back to camp around sundown...we ate our dinner at dusk and turned on headlamps to make pudding for dessert

In Search of Moose Bones (5th in a series about Isle Royale)

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

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile adventures 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/

This year, Moosewatch Teams had GPS data from collared wolves newly introduced to the island. While not all of these data points were kill sites, when there was a moose kill it was pretty fresh.

The recent kills that our all-women team found still had some fur on the lower legs and all hooves were still present. You know how your dog loves to chew on hoof trimmings? So do wolves, and they'll be back for them.

First kill site

Hooves still present

Recent kills still have moose ticks hanging around

Skull

pelvis of yearling moose 

Second kill site

Lower moose jaw held by my excellent team (April, Joceline, and Julie)