The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department is now using helicopters and heat sensitive cameras to track and count moose, mainly over the Northeast Kingdom area of the state where the moose population is the highest. Helicopters are used to fly overhead while scientists locate the large heat emitting mammals on the ground below. This is relatively easy to do this time of year in the cold. The large critters give off a pretty good amount of heat showing up like a large white blog on the camera screen.
The data is collected, time, location, etc. and once the biologists return to the lab they recheck their information. Scientists can now use this information along with all other data that they normally use, and formulate better ways of managing the moose herd.
Tom Remington
