Where do the moose tracks lead?

We walked along the dirt road through the woods, our heads and eyes down, looking for moose tracks.

The previous morning a driver had spotted a 1-year-old moose in the road walking in circles and making no effort to evade the vehicle.

One of the Shingle Shanty Preserve and Research Station landowners relayed that information to Steve Langdon, director of the 23-squaremile private preserve west of Long Lake.

The next morning Langdon invited me to join him at the preserve to find the animal. It appeared as if it were infected by a brain worm, a parasitic worm that often grows up to 8 inches long and is as wide as a human hair or two. In moose, the worms migrate through their brains and spinal cords, causing neurological damage and eventually death. Moose ingest them accidently by eating infected snails or slugs that