I’ve been looking for moose. I’ve seen moose before but not lately. From BC to Ontario last year, nary a moose reared its enormous head in our presence. Same for Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, which we’re leaving as I write. Not a one.

Moose have no natural enemies in Newfoundland because they’re not native. A bull and a calf were released near Gander in 1878, and two or three more in 1904. Not sure why they were brought from Nova Scotia, but here they’ve proliferated. Or so they say.

Newfoundland and Labrador has a population of 514,536. There are also 115,000 moose living here. That means that there is one moose for every 4.474 people. We estimate that we have come into contact with 1000 people in the last 8 days. If so, then doesn’t it stand to reason that we could have come into contact with 223.51 moose? Conservatively we could halve, or even quarter that, which would mean 111.61, or 55.81 moose.

Most of our time has been spent in the country where moose live, or on the highways where they die.

But no, we get no moose. We still have another 8 days or so of travel. I’ll keep you posted.