I love wildlife. That’s why I spend my time, and money, photographing all these creatures and their surroundings. However, the photos above paint an interesting picture with a sad tail and the same ‘villain’ – ticks and of course the bigger culprit still, climate change.
Where I have lived most of my life in New Hampshire, 10 years ago, to have a tick on you from walking in the woods was unheard of. The winters here are harsh and long, which makes a ticks survival difficult. This has since changed. While the winters are still long, they are no were near as cold and snowy as they used to be so ticks have moved in and thrived. Now, I can step out of my car on the side of the road, or mow my lawn without at least one tick on me, let alone 3 or 4. This bring me to the first characters of this short story, the moose.
While the moose picture above are certainly healthy (the lack of hair is normal this time of year due to shedding), they are the lucky ones. In the past decade or so, the moose population in New Hampshire has been on the decline and not due to hunting (which is strictly regulated) or motor vehicle accidents, but winter tick. The moose can get so overburden by ticks, especially young moose, that they lack the strength to move or get up after they bed down for the night so they starve, and sadly die. In the 4 mile stretch of road where those two pictures were taken, it was not uncommon to see 3 or more moose every night during the spring and early summer, now you would be lucky to spot a few in the entirety of that time span. Even in the Great North Woods, in a section of route 3 in Pittsburg, New Hampshire called Moose Alley, they are becoming harder to spot. A sad tale indeed.
For the final character in this story, I give you this cute baby porcupine. Baby animals are out a lot here, usually with their mothers. However, Nature being the cruel lady that she can be, the weak are often left by their mother as the burden to care for a sickly youngster is too much. While I cannot confirm that that is the case for this baby, I was not able to see the mother close by and only realized that this baby was likely abandoned when I was able to review my shots. No, that light brown dot below its left eye is not a growth but a tick, and not the only one. Just above the same eye is an even smaller tick, and while not visible in these shots, there are at least two more, another small one just embedding below that eye and one behind its ear. Much like with the moose, ticks have been know to latch on to all sorts of other creatures in such numbers that they kill it, whether by ecxanguination or starvation due to being to weak. And if they can do it to a creature as large as a moose, a baby porcupine is an easy target.
Though ticks are the direct antagonists in this story, climate change is the puppeteer underneath. While there are some that certainly deny its existence, it is very much real and it is happening now. Currently, not all of its effects are completely negative. A prime example is birds. There are birds that have become ‘common’ here in southern New Hampshire that were considered rare or unheard of 10 or 15 years ago. While that is for me as a bird photographer as I don’t have to travel nearly as far to see some of them, they are here because their historic home for a particular season has changed. Perhaps there’s less food, or it’s too hot. That’s the reality. So while I love being able to see them locally, I would like my children, and their children to have the same privilege.
The moral of this story is help change climate change through awareness. Use your love for nature and wildlife to educate and inform others of the reality of climate change and the impact that it’s having all around us. Tell the world a story through your pictures as a picture does paint a thousand words.