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| The Moose is by far the largest animal in the Algonquin Highlands, weighing an average of 500 kilograms. It is more than twice the size of the Black Bear. A full-grown Moose will reach a height of two metres or more to the shoulders. They have dark brown fur, antlers, long legs, large ears, a long muzzle, and a short tail. The Moose also has a loose flap of skin hanging from the throat, and they have poor eyesight. Despite its large size, the Moose can run as fast as a deer and can be quite silent when moving. The Moose uses its long legs to move through deep snow and to reach for high branches from small trees. Their winter diet consists mainly of twigs from trees and shrubs, which they will consume twenty kilograms of a day. In the summer the Moose feeds on mainly aquatic plants and roots. These plants are rich in sodium, which the moose is greatly lacking from its winter diet. This is why Moose are also frequently found at the sides of highways in the early spring drinking from salty puddles made from winter sanding. Moose may be seen with hairless patches on their shoulders and around their tails. This is due to winter ticks, which attach themselves in autumn and lay dormant until January or February. Scratching causes the Moose to lose patches of hair, which is very damaging to their insulating coat of hair. An abundance of these ticks can even lead to death. Male Moose, called bulls, grow and lose antlers each year. In their prime, between the ages of four and eight years, these antlers measure more than a metre from tip to tip and weigh as much as 25 kilograms. Beginning their growth in April, the antlers are first covered in a velvet layer of skin and short hair, which is rubbed off on trees and shrubs in September to expose the bony antlers. Bulls use these antlers solely to improve their success in the mating season, called the rut. The rut occurs in late September to early October and most behavior will take place in the early morning or late in the day. Female Moose, called cows, have a moaning bawl sound similar to that of a cow, while the bulls give a coughing sound like “ga-wunk”. Their presence is also known by violently thrashing shrubbery with their antlers. Bulls assess each other’s dominance by the size of their antlers, and will have a sparring battle if dominance is not immediately determined. The winning male will have access to the local cows. Cows give birth to a single young in May, often on islands in lakes to avoid predators. The young are called calves, and are covered in a light reddish wooly brown fur. They will stay with their mother for a full year, until the time when their mothers give birth again the next spring. |
(Family Cervidae)
Alces alces
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