The Mount Rainier National Park Service released a photo of the first recorded moose sighting at Mount Rainier in Washington's state Thursday. The sighting could be a sign of an increase in moose activity in the southern Cascades, experts say.
The park released a tweet depicting a picture of a moose trekking up a snowy hill at Mount Rainier National Park. In the post, the park service suggested the moose could be the same one spotted at the Interstate 90 Snoqualmie Pass in August.
The August sighting includes a video posted by the Washington state Department of Transportation. The recording depicts an infrared silhouette of a moose sauntering through the Resort Creek wildlife undercrossing below I-90. The August video is the only recorded moose sighting the department has captured since it began monitoring the underpass in 2015, according to Meagan Lott, the south central region communications manager with the department.
Moose predominantly occupy regions in northeast Washington, according to Kyle Garrison, a wildlife biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. He said in an interview that the moose at Mount Rainier is likely a dispersing animal, which means it could have a personality suited to exploring new areas.
Additionally, the moose sighting represents how efforts to connect fragmented habitats have allowed animals to trek into new regions, according to Brian Stewart, the Cascades to Olympics program manager with Conservation Northwest, a nonprofit organization in Seattle. He added that factors such as climate change and human development have forced animals to relocate.
"So I think the state and people need to just kind of get ready for changes, you know — seeing things you're not used to seeing, animals being really not necessarily where they used to be," Stewart said.
Andrea Wolf-Buck, communications director with Conservation Northwest, said the Mount Rainier moose sighting is significant because it shows that animal corridor development efforts have been successful at connecting wildlife habitats to one another.
Conservation Northwest partnered with the state to build the wildlife corridor under I-90, bridging Washington's northern habitats to the south Cascades.
"Having a moose show up at Mount Rainier National Park is just showing that everything we're doing is working," Wolf-Buck said.
