MONTREAL, May 17 (UPI) -- Millions of vehicles collide with moose, elk and caribou in North America annually and moose seeking salt from pavement deicing are a problem, researchers say.
Moose are the largest animal in the deer family, with males weighing up to 1,500 pounds, so their salt cravings can pose significant risks to human and vehicle safety, a release from Concordia University in Montreal reported Tuesday.
Concordia researchers say the large mammals are capable of remembering salt pools left over from deicing that they visited in previous years.
"When the scheduled time came to go to a salt pool, moose moved directly to it with purpose," researcher Paul D. Grosman said.
The research team analyzed various solutions to the problem, such as removing salt pools altogether or creating compensation salt pools for the animals away from roads.
Although moose could travel as much as 6 miles to drink from salt pools, their road crossings could be reduced by as much as 79 percent if all roadside salt pools were removed, the researchers said.
However, they said, by far the best solution would be to eliminate salt pools altogether.
"The most effective management strategy is to remove all salt pools, without creating any compensatory ones, and let moose return to foraging for aquatic plants to satisfy their sodium dietary requirement," Grosman said.
