Bloody Beds

[elkdiesel]

Hey I love getting out in the mountains this time of year, and I run into a lot of moose. Quit frequently there is blood where they bed down. Just today I came across at least three different moose and all of them had at least some blood in the snow around where they were layin. One had a lot of blood. Anybody have a good explanation. A couple years ago I thought antlers falling off and bleeding, but these seem to be cows. I was wondering about ticks, disease, pms, etc..?

 

[elk_hunter]

Holy smokes...I've never heard of that. I'd be curious what anyone else verifies. And, is it limited to moose? Or do elk and deer also exhibit the same thing?

 

[Lawnboy]

May be from all the high stepping through blowdown and stuff that they do. I know my horses legs get bloody when we take them on a rough section of blow down. Just my un professional thoughts.

 

[elkdiesel]

May be from all the high stepping through blowdown and stuff that they do. I know my horses legs get bloody when we take them on a rough section of blow down. Just my un professional thoughts.

My legs are are tore up after today, so that might be a possibility. I haven't noticed it so much in the elk and deer that I have run across. Mostly just the moose.

 

[TheTone]

Is this an area with quite a bit of sagebrush? Ticks could be a possible answer. Our moose where I'm at pick up some severe tick loads on certain winters, some even to the point that they die.

 

[elkdiesel]

Is this an area with quite a bit of sagebrush? Ticks could be a possible answer. Our moose where I'm at pick up some severe tick loads on certain winters, some even to the point that they die.

It was in Idaho that I was running into beds with "popped" ticks in them, but I don't think that is the case here.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

I do alot of hunting in the "owhyee's" in SW idaho, and almost everything from deer, antelope too coyotes and rabbits have alittle blood in there beds, they constantly are going through rocks and sagebrush in the summer and the same thing but with hard snow/ice on top during the winter, so they always have cuts/sores on them that are open and bleeding alittle..... I assume that in this case the moose are alot larger and the environment has the same affect on them, I saw the same thing with whitetail on the farm in Montana that run through the CRP fields getting cut up by the grass blade's and such and the ice coating on the top of the snow when they are run off there trails..... but i'm no expert, just a hypothesis....
Matt

 

[174in]

Our deer here have alot of blood in their beds when the snow has a crust on it cuts their legs up.I would think a moose would have alot tougher skin though.

 

[elk_hunter]

Oh great point about the snow...yeah, I bet crusty snow/ice could shred some skin and cause bleeding.

 

[sweetnectar]

Could you tell if the blood was in the hoof print only or from their rear ends when laying in the beds?

 

[elkdiesel]

Could you tell if the blood was in the hoof print only or from their rear ends when laying in the beds?

Today two of the beds looked like a watermelon snow cones Others were a couple spots here and there.

 

[ismith]

Ive seen that in elk beds before, my guess would be ticks. Some of the beds had dislodged ticks, others didnt, but the blood pattern was the same. Its amazing how much blood loss they cause.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

ticks, that's funny, I have shot 4 deer and 8 antelope here in Idaho and have never seen tick on either... maybe in area's that have alot of ticks but so fart in the SW I don't see many, and from the sounds of how much blood that is being saw, pretty sure it's not ticks, and everyone of those killed animals mentioned above there legs were all scared up from rocks/ice/snow crust, could we maybe get some pictures of the beds by chance....
Matt