A Few Words About Moose

If circumstances provide an opportunity to spend much time sharing of moose habitat one may have the good luck to spend some time observing the interesting creatures. Because Moose are a kind of large deer and thus herbivorous (no horned animals are carnivors) they are more inclined to run when surprised by human beings.

Don't count on the moose scampering away however. Bull moose may have a run at you if it seems necessary. If its a bull try to not close the distance with the moose too much, for at some point it may choose to charge and you may need to dodge behind a tree.

When approaching moose whistle a little in a friendly way, or talk at them as if they were a curious horse-they may stop running and stay put. Short lived wild animals haven't always learned to fear humans-and moose have comparatively few natural enemies-human beings don't resemble wolves or dogs that moose probably hate.

In winter when snow coveground moose eat smaller branches of deciduous trees. They hunker down in the snow with their legs under them-legs that don't have much in the way of blood flow so that the spindly things don't freeze up as would bare human legs in zero degree weather eventually.

Moose and deer have the same disinterest as might a human in avoiding injury caused by running full speed to avoid predators through a dense and sharp forest environment-keep your dogs on a leash if possible for they give deer hell generally in the chase. Even the slick highway surfaces with compact snow and ice may cause a moose to slip and break a leg so it can hobble about with three good legs and one right angled foreleg until someone is kind enough to give it a home in their freezer.

For many of us visitors to the vanishing world of nature Moose are the closest thing we seem to that pleistocene America remaining. In winter moose even remind us a little of the shape of American buffalo with a larger front end than back, dark, shaggy locks of hair and icy breath-what else is left in America besides the flourishing American possum to remind us of the healthy way things were when our forbears wandered into the new world 25,000 years ago?