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Moose tactics
Posted by Michael Strahan on Dec 15 2005
379,
I can tell you that moose can be ATTRACTED from great distances by scent. I did my first arctic moose hunt in 1987 and watched a bull run about three miles to a cow that was positioned upwind of him out on a willow flat. It was uncanny how he went to the exact spot where she was. On another occasion I saw a 55" bull walk right into camp, having been attracted by the smell of some caribou meat that was hanging from the meat pole. The meat was in game bags. I know he was attracted by the meat, because I was calling him from a hill some distance away and he was making a beeline for us. When he got downwind from the camp, he did a ninety-degree turn to the right and went directly to the camp (about a half-mile away) and walked right to the meat pole and sniffed the meat. I have to assume he also smelled the hunters and their gear, because the guys were still in the tent when the moose came in. I talked to them later about it, wondering why they didn't shoot. They were non-residents and weren't sure he was over the 50" legal minimum spread.
It's been my experience that moose don't necessarily respond to human scent the same way as other members of the deer family. The quote you mentioned doesn't say that they do though; just that they react to scent more strongly than visual cues. That may be true, but in either case they don't seem to go too far most of the time. There are probably differences from this in areas that are more heavily hunted though. Still, the idea that a moose would be "frightened" by either scent or sight is not something that has been obvious to me in the field, or at least, not like it is with other deer.
That said, my practice in the field has been to assume game will respond to my scent negatively, and to manage it accordingly. Better safe than sorry. My observations are that scent management is much more important with bears than any other species, though with about four square yards of nostril area, you'd think this would be an issue with moose. Lord knows they've got the equipment for it!
Hope this helps!
-Mike
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