Skip to Navigation Skip to Content
Decorative woodsy background

What in the Woods Is That?

Play our biweekly guessing game!

Whatever draws us into the forest—be it birdwatching or logging, hiking or hunting—all of us are unified by the sense of wonder we feel in the outdoors. The forests, fields, and streams of our region are full of mystery, and if you stop and look closely, you’ll see all sorts of oddities.

Below find a picture of one such woodlands curio. Guess what it is and you’ll be eligible to win a Northern Woodlands woodpecker magnet designed by artist Liz Wahid. A prize winner will be drawn at random from all the correct entries. The correct answer, and the winner’s name, will appear when the next column is posted and in our newsletter (sign up here!).

Not Driftwood!

Driftwood? Nope. What in the woods could this be?

Answer

A moose antler.

A few years back, game warden Travis Buttle of Shaftsbury, Vermont, received a trouble call about a bull moose with funny antlers that had died in someone’s backyard. It was determined that the moose had died of natural causes – more specifically, meningeal worm, also known as brain worm, a tiny parasite. The antler pictured came off that moose.

Might the brain worm have caused this antler’s strange, driftwood-like appearance? Several scientists I spoke to had doubts. Vince Crichton, a wildlife biologist from Winnipeg, Canada, suggested that liver flukes may be a more likely culprit. He’s studied populations of German roe deer where liver flukes seemed to accompany non-typical antler growth. Another possibility is fibromatosis – a type of skin tumor that some scientists believe can cause antler deformity. Finally, the moose could have simply damaged the antler in velvet.

This week’s contest winner was Nick Fortin