White Christmas, White Moose

   On recent drives along the Gunflint Trail I have been seeing lots of moose.  Just last night I saw three moose on only a 30 mile stretch and the other night five.  They are out and about and you can see their tracks everywhere on the fresh fallen snow and their butts as they dash into the woods.  I haven’t seen any white moose on the Gunflint Trail but I have seen them in my e-mail inbox with this accompanying story.

Once in awhile there is an opportunity to take in a piece of nature that you may never see. The photographer of the following photos (Photographer Unknown) was one lucky person. In these days of unrest and turmoil it is great to see mother nature can still produce some wondrous beauty. The odds of seeing an Albino Moose are astronomical and to see it in MI near Wisconsin are even greater than astronomical but to see two of them is near impossible. We wanted to share these photos with as many people as possible because you will probably never have a chance to see this rare
sighting again.This is a really special treat, so enjoy the shot of a life time. These animals were photographed just North of the Wisconsin Line on a highway near Marenisco, MI. Thanks to RK for the photos…..

Someone asked if there is anything mystical about this sighting. I don’t know but I do know that I really enjoy looking at them. I am pretty sure that if you send them to five friends nothing magical will happen except you will know that you have shared a unique experience that they will never see again. ENJOY!

This was another occasion to use my favorite Snopes website and this is what they had to say.

Tracking down the origin of these photographs of a pair of "albino moose"  along a highway has not been a straightforward task, because these critters are apparently wide-roaming moose: differing versions of the accompanying text have placed them all across North America, from British Columbia to the Maritime provinces in Canada, and from Michigan to Maine in the United States .   As best we can ascertain, the pictures date from mid-2006 and were snapped in either New Brunswick or Newfoundland .

We’ve listed this item as "Partly true" because although the photographs may be genuine, the animals pictured are likely not true albinos but rather (or "white-haired") moose, an unusual genetic variation of the species that has been spotted in several states and provinces:

 

 

In general, moose have brown coats of hair. In some rare cases, the colour of moose coats can range from predominantly white to a mixture of white and brown. White-coloured moose are not a separate species, but are examples of a rare colour phase that can occur naturally in wild moose populations.

 

White-coloured moose have been reported in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Newfoundland, Alaska and Idaho . Restrictions on the hunting of white-coloured moose were put in place for the Port au Port Peninsula in 2002 by Newfoundland and Labrador . No other province has hunting regulations prohibiting the harvest of white-coloured moose.