Ryan Boucher of Greene experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows last week during his moose hunt in Andover.
Boucher and his hunting party were ecstatic when he shot a bull moose on Tuesday, Oct. 11, during the second week of the season.
“It was an awesome experience,” said Boucher, who received a permit this year for the first time.
“With the moose hunt, even the ones that I’ve been on before, there’s such highs and lows,” he said. “We were on a high and we thought everything was great.”
Everything changed after they arrived at Sabattus Deer Processing to have the moose butchered. Greg Provost began to take the hide off the animal and immediately noticed that something was wrong.
“It was yellow all the way through, from head to toe,” said Boucher, who explained that the butcher was startled to find the bone marrow resembled yellow Jell-O. “It was the weirdest thing.”
On Wednesday, Lee Kantar, moose biologist for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, explained what happened to the moose. It was only the second time he had seen the condition in 13 years.
“An extremely rare condition, given the thousands of moose harvested, skinned and butchered over the course of that time,” he said. “The jaundiced condition of the moose is typically caused by either a breakdown of red blood cells and infusion of bilirubin throughout the animal as seen in the photo, or acute liver failure.”
Provost immediately determined that because they didn’t know what they were dealing with, he should not process the animal and risk contaminating other meat he was storing at his facility. They contacted the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Maine Warden Service, which recommended that the meat not be consumed.
“I was a little disappointed, kind of bummed out, when I first found out I couldn’t eat it,” Boucher said.
State officials concurred that the meat from the moose shouldn’t be eaten.
“It is an extreme case, and as such, and out of an abundance of caution, we advised against the consumption of this moose,” Kantar said.
Boucher worked with biologists by providing photos of the moose and also took a biologist to the kill site a day later. The state was hoping to be able to examine the liver, but there wasn’t much left of the moose’s internal organs.
Safety issues with moose meat almost always arise from hunters’ inability to keep the meat cool after the animal is killed. Spoiled meat, which also can result from a bullet strike, gives off a pungent odor and sometimes appears greenish.
Boucher was in complete agreement with the state officials’ decision about the moose.
“The meat smelled fine and looked fine. It wasn’t spoiled,” Boucher said, stressing the hunters’ efforts to extract the moose quickly and get it on ice for transport. “It was just the skin and the bone marrow that was yellow.”
DIF&W and the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention do have an advisory recommending that people not eat the liver and kidneys of moose because of possible contamination with the heavy metal cadmium.
Moose also can be infected by brainworm, a fatal condition it contracts from deer, but the meat from affected moose is safe for consumption.
Boucher expressed his gratitude for the guidance provided by state officials.
“I do appreciate them advising me against consumption before I fed my family,” he said, “but hopefully with others seeing this it can inform them of something to look for in the future. And hopefully there aren’t any more cases.”
Boucher’s moose had appeared normal during the hunt, exhibiting no signs of sickness or weakness. It weighed 767 pounds and sported an attractive antler spread of just under 40 inches. He was able to keep the antlers.
“That’s cool, because I can still look at that and remember hey, that was my sick moose,” he said.
Boucher returned home on Oct. 12, assuming he would not be filling his freezer with moose meat.
As it turned out, he had some choices to make.
The Warden Service gave Boucher and his sub-permittee the option of heading back to the woods and trying to shoot another moose. Since everyone in the party had already returned home, and with high winds and heavy rain in the forecast, he decided not to pursue the opportunity.
Wardens instead provided Boucher with the meat from another moose that he was told had been harvested illegally as part of a double kill. It was a good compromise, under the circumstances.
He received more than 200 pounds of meat from the 450-pound animal.
“I was fortunate just to have the opportunity once. What are the chances that you can do it twice?” he said of resuming the hunt. “So I took the option of having the meat and not having it as a complete loss.”
Boucher was more concerned about trying to find out what was wrong with his moose and whether it should be a concern for other moose hunters.
Despite some disappointment, Boucher said the hunt exceeded his expectations.
“The hunt itself, you can’t take that excitement away,” he said. “It doesn’t feel quite the same, but it was still a good experience.”
