When Kelly and Karen Smith floated the Grande Ronde River last summer with a couple of other families, they thought they would be lucky to catch a glimpse of a wild sheep along the river in Northeast Oregon, or even a rattlesnake slithering along its banks.

But instead, to their surprise, they saw a pair of animals that seemed out of place in the state: moose.

”We came around the corner and there was a cow and a calf in the water,” recalled Karen Smith. ”To see them in Oregon, it doesn’t really register … It’s like, are we still in Oregon? Does this river go to Washington or Idaho?”

They were, in fact, still in Oregon. After several decades of scattered reports of individual moose, wildlife biologists are now seeing a permanent population of the large ungulates in the northeast mountains of Oregon.

There’s no evidence that moose historically roamed this area; instead, they were farther north, said Pat Matthews, wildlife biologist with the Wallowa District of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

”Moose in general, just in the last 100, 150 years, have been expanding their range south,” he said.

In the 1960s, the department started occasionally getting reports of individual animals that would show up but then disappear. By the 1990s, moose started making more frequent visits and were spotted by people every two years or so, he said.

”About four years ago, it really dawned on us that we’ve got some moose here,” he said.

Sightings grow

In the last two years, there have been documented calves born in the state, and the department now estimates that about 40 moose have made a permanent home in Northeast Oregon.

”And that number should continue to increase,” said Craig Ely, northeast region manager for the Fish and Wildlife Department in La Grande.

But the new addition to the state’s wildlife was, at first, a surprise for the department, he said.

”Initially, I think, we questioned intensely some of the reports,” Ely said. ”Then we started seeing photographs and we went, ‘You know, we’ve got the real thing here.’”

The moose have been spotted on the Grande Ronde River but have also come through La Grande, been seen north of Pendleton, around Tollgate and scattered in other places as well, mostly in the northern Blue Mountains.

”It’s real typical of a new species invading new habitat,” Ely said. ”They explore, they look and they feel out what’s the best place to hang out.”

Although wildlife biologists don’t really know for sure why the moose are expanding southward, one idea is that it has to do with modern logging practices, Matthews said.

”They are attracted to these areas where the timber’s been cut, and it’s the young regrowth that comes into these areas that (moose) key in on,” he said.

Moose are primarily browsers and will eat leafy species like willows and shrubs that grow after an area has been logged or burned, he said. In Oregon, most moose are spotted in forests that were cut between 10 and 25 years ago and are now dense with the browse species they find tasty.

Although the department isn’t encouraging more logging, previous and ongoing harvesting operations will create very good moose habitat, he said, adding that he expects the number of moose to increase and their home range to expand.

”I think they’re just an animal that’s very adaptable,” he said. ”Normally people associate them with these wet meadows and boggy areas. But in actuality – they do like that – but they’re very well adapted to these mountainous areas where there are browse species to feed on.”

They probably won’t migrate farther south than Union County, however, he said, because of the drier climate.

Keeping tabs

To track where the new population does go, the Fish and Wildlife Department has depended on reports and pictures of moose from the public, Matthews said.

Biologists have spent time on the ground, looking for tracks and droppings and trying to observe what kind of plants they’re eating. They also did some aerial surveys last winter to see if they could develop some techniques to help them estimate the population size.

”But moose are very solitary so they’re hard to find, especially if there aren’t too many of them,” he said.

While biologists are interested in putting radio collars on some of the animals to see where they’re going and what habitat they prefer, the state Wildlife Department doesn’t currently have any money for moose management programs, Matthews said.

Instead, he hopes to start up some projects with conservation groups in the next year or two to do more studies of the animals.

Oregon’s new residents are the smallest subspecies of moose, called Shiras or Yellowstone. While the kind of moose people see in Alaska can reach 1,500 pounds, Shiras moose get up around 1,000 pounds, he said.

They’re often solitary, he said, so he doesn’t anticipate problems with moose trampling alfalfa fields or causing damage to haystacks like herds of elk or deer can do.

As the number of animals grows, there will probably be occasional collisions with vehicles, as well as predation by cougars. For right now, Matthews said, the department is trying to educate hunters in the area about the presence of moose, telling them to be certain of their target so they don’t accidentally shoot one.

Moose are also more defensive than other big game species, which tend to flee, he said, although they will leave an area if given a chance. The only time there might be a concern for people’s safety is if a cow has a young calf that she feels is threatened.

People shouldn’t walk up to moose, especially if an animal is with a calf, said Vic Coggins, district biologist with the agency’s Wallowa District.

”They can be pretty feisty if they have calves,” he said, adding that people should use common sense if they come across a moose.

But there’s been a lot of interest in the growing moose population, he said. Unlike many other newcomers to Oregon’s wildlife, moose aren’t considered an invasive species since they’re just expanding their range.

Most people are pleased and excited that they saw a moose, he said.

Including Karen Smith, who said that although she had seen and hunted moose in Alaska, admiring how they walked like they were kings, it was spectacular to see them in Oregon.

”Even the little kids, everybody was quiet, it was just so awesome and they were so close, they just moved slowly up the river,” she said. ”It was fantastic to see.”