Tagging Moose

We used to tag Moose when I was in Alaska (59-63). We would tag the little ones. In about May when the calves were born, we would go out about 2 in the morning or as soon as it was light. We would carry three people from Fish and Wildlife. One would be a husky young man, a man with an ear tag, and a man with a high powered rifle.

We would fly around until we spotted a cow with a small calf. We then drop down and hover and separate the two. We would land near the calf and discharge the three man crew. We would then take off and hover between the cow and the calf. The young husky guy would catch the calf, the man with the tag would put a tag in the calf's ear, and the man with the big gun would stand by to shoot the cow if we couldn't keep her away.

In the couple hundred we tagged each year, they never had to shoot Mama. But even hovering at about 2 feet, I had snorting cows come within about 5 feet of the nose of the helicopter, and they wouldn't back down until we really pushed them. But we were flying H-21s so there was no tail rotor to worry about. (Don Aamodt~ROTORHEAD Contributor)