Moosewatch volunteers slog through forest searching for bones

The researchers with the Isle Royale Wolf-Moose project rely on "Moosewatch" volunteers who pay to hike the island in search of bones. In addition to moose bones, they collect all kinds of other data along the way. This "boots on the ground" effort is critical to the project. Researchers say the volunteers find about a third of all the bones collected for the project. In a typical year they find the skeletal remains of 50 to 75 moose. They perform necropsies on these moose and collect several specimens (skull, jaw bone, metatarsus, and any arthritic bones). The bones help tell the story of the moose population on Isle Royale.

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