Moose

Alex Re (00:01): Hello, welcome to On Wildlife. I'm your host Alex Re. On this podcast, we bring the wild to you. We take you on a journey into the life of a different animal every week, and I guarantee you you're going to come out of here knowing more about your favorite animal than you did before. Today we'll be talking about one of the largest land animals in North America. These huge mammals may look a little awkward, but you'll see that they're extremely well adapted to their environments. So pack your winter coats because we're heading to some freezing cold forests to talk about moose.

(00:54): Moose are the largest members of the Deer family ser a day and their closest relative in this family is the elk. However, they're a lot bigger than Elks. A male moose can stand at over seven feet tall at the shoulder and weigh 1300 pounds, whereas an elk only stands at around five feet at the shoulder and weighs around 800 pounds. The world's largest moose was 1,808 pounds and stood at 7.6 feet tall. But even though moose are enormous, they're not the largest animal in North America. That title belongs to the bison, which stands at 11 feet tall at the hump and weighs over 3000 pounds. Moose are thought of as primarily a North American mammal, however, they're also native to northern and central Europe. Moose can be found in 19 US states, including Alaska, Colorado, and Maine. Alaska has the highest population of moose in the us.

(01:58): They're also native to Norway, Finland, Russia, the Baltic states, Poland, and parts of Ukraine. In Europe, moose are referred to as elk, which is kind of confusing because not only are they not elk, but they also share the same range as true elk. The word moose is derived from the Native American word moose, which means stripper and eater of bark. In North America there are four recognized subspecies of moose. These are the eastern northwestern Shira and Alaskan moose. In Europe, there are several subspecies as well, but there's a lot more debate on the legitimacy of these subspecies. Some of them include the European, Siberian, west Siberian, and East Siberian moose. While moose are just generally large, their size varies by subspecies and it's thought to be primarily because of the living condition in each area. The largest moose are found in Siberia and Alaska while the smallest are found in Wyoming and Manchuria.

(03:06): Also, the correct plural form of moose is just moose. It's not mooses or meese. These animals have a very low life expectancy for such a large mammal with females on average only reaching eight years old and males just about seven, they are capable of living into their teens, but individuals past 20 are incredibly rare. Moose are strict herbivores and mainly feed on deciduous shrubs, but they'll also feed on other woody plants such as certain species of trees. Deciduous just means that the plant will shed its leaves depending on the season. Willow, aspen, birch, maple, pine cherry, and mountain ash are some examples of shrubs and trees that they'll feed on during the winter when their normal diet of deciduous plants lose their leaves. They'll feed on conifers like you and fir trees. However, these kinds of plants don't usually have enough nutrition to sustain them.

(04:05): They'll not only eat the leaves of plants, but the bark and twigs on the branches as well. This makes sense considering where they get their name from. All of the plants that moose eat aren't easy to digest, we would have a really hard time digesting them too. To combat this, they have developed one of the most complex digestive systems in the animal kingdom. First, they'll chew on their food, which is the first round of digestion. Then the food undergoes a second round where it's digested in the stomach. That's pretty normal, but here's where it gets weird. They'll then regurgitate their food and chew it up some more and then they'll swallow it again. The regurgitated material is called cudd. They can chew cudd for up to eight hours a day. Animals that do this are called ruminants, and ruminants are really good at getting the most nutrition out of food as possible.

(05:03): Another example of a ruminant is a cow or a wildebeest. An important source of food for moose during the summer months is aquatic vegetation such as pondweed and water lilies and moose will actively seek out aquatic vegetation because it's much higher in nutrition than their other food sources. In other words, a smaller amount of aquatic vegetation provides more energy than the same amount of deciduous vegetation and moose can dive up to 20 feet below the water surface in search for food, and there have been accounts of moose who inhabit coastal areas diving for seaweed in order to effectively feed on aquatic food sources. Moose have specially developed noses. Their muscle has a complex system of cartilage muscles and folds that allow them to close their nostrils to be watertight and of course, in order to do this, they need to be really good swimmers. They can swim at over six miles per hour, which is faster than Michael Phelps. Moose will also visit sites called mineral licks, which are places where concentrated mineral deposits are exposed. They visit these sites in order to get sodium, which is an important mineral for them to function. Sodium is also another reason they seek out aquatic plants because they're higher in sodium content. Moose have also been observed licking cars and roadsides to gather the artificial road salt. Okay, we're going to take our first break and when we get back we'll hear more about the lives and behaviors of moose.

(06:54): The science word that I want to tell you about today is circadian rhythm. This is basically your body's internal clock. It regulates when you sleep and when you wake up. You can throw off your circadian rhythm if you stray away from your regular sleep schedule.

(07:21): Okay, we're back like other species in the same family as moose. Their mating season is called a rutt. Moose enter rutt in early fall around September when in rut, both males and females will attract each other to mate through scent and auditory cues. Bulls which are males, will paw holes into the ground with their hooves and urinate into them. This in combination with rolling in these holes can attract females and bulls will go great distances in order to find females that are suitable mates. Cows which are females will use mating calls to attract rotting bulls. Bulls in Rutt find themselves to be in a very stressful time. During this time, a bull's hormones skyrocket making them incredibly aggressive. Bulls will often fight over females or for a territory and many bulls can sustain injuries from these fights. In Alaska alone, around 10 people will be hurt by moose every year, and this could be attributed to their aggressiveness during this time.

(08:30): The energy that it takes bulls to grow antlers search for a mate and fend off rival bulls puts them at a significant disadvantage for winter as they expend most of their excess energy. Antlers are an important tool for moose for both protection and attracting a mate. A bull's antlers will begin to grow during the spring when food becomes more readily available. Growing antlers takes around 25% of their total energy by the summer when growing at their fastest, antlers can grow three fourths of an inch per day. When a mousse is in the process of growing antlers, the antlers are covered by a membrane of skin called velvet. When the antlers are done growing, the velvet will shed off and this is a pretty graphic process and results in the antlers being bloody and skin hanging off of them until it clears up. The velvet has a high amount of blood flow and delivers all the nutrients the antlers need for rapid growth.

(09:33): Antler development is directly correlated with age. Young moose have small antlers which annually grow larger until they reach their prime around age five. After their prime, this trend reverses with their antlers growing smaller. Annually. When rutt is over and bulls no longer need their antlers, they'll fall off and this is a pretty painless process. Moose reach maturity incredibly fast for large mammals with males being ready to reproduce as young as a year old and females being ready as early as two females will usually produce and raise one calf at a time. However, there have been reports of them having two calves, but twins are incredibly rare since moose breed in the fall, that means cows are pregnant through the winter, which is an incredible feat because there's almost no food in the winter. This ensures that the calves are born in the spring where they have the most amount of nutrients to survive after each breeding season.

(10:36): About eight out of 10 cows are pregnant by the time they should be giving birth. Only about two out of the 10 have a living calf. This shows how difficult it is to stay pregnant throughout the harsh winter. Moose have a gestation period of around 230 days, which is pretty quick compared to other large mammals when they're born. The calves are very small compared to a full grown moose, only 30 pounds, but they can walk very quickly after birth. Calves will feed from their mother's milk for around two months, and after this two month period they'll begin testing out vegetation. Calves are fully weaned off of their mothers by late fall, and at this point they weigh over 10 times what they were when they were born. We already talked about moose being able to swim, but moose actually spend so much time in the water that they can almost be classified as amphibious.

(11:33): They're considered the hippopotamus of the north country. When looking at the way a moose is built, it's easy to tell that they are well suited for time in the water. Their long legs are well adapted for both wading in shallow water and swimming in deep water. Moose enter the water for more than just foraging, though they can also use water as an escape from danger. An animal attempting to prey on a young or injured moose is unlikely to follow them into the water. When partially submerged, their respiratory rate will reduce by up to 30%. This combined with the natural weight reduction of water can reduce their overall energy consumption by up to 10%, which is a big deal for such a large animal in the winter. Moose will craft what is known as a moose yard in very deep snow. This moose yard is a system of trails that allows them easier access to the little food that they have during the winter.

(12:32): Walking through trails that they've previously created reduces the energy that they expend to eat tremendously. At some point during the winter, the snow becomes too deep and food becomes too sparse. At this point, moose will stop eating altogether and just sit in solitude. They do this because the gathering of food costs more energy than they would regain from the food that they eat. This state can last up to five months where they lose weight every single day. However, most moose survive this due to the weight that they pack on before the winter, but why are moose important to the ecosystems? We'll find that out right after the break time for today's trivia question, when was the first dinosaur fossil discovered? The answer is 1838.

(13:52): Okay, we're back. Moose are important to the overall health of the forests that they inhabit. Moose browsing practices and foraging are very important to the health of younger forests. As they keep many plant species from outcompeting one another, they can even have landscape altering effects because of the amount of food that they consume. Adult moose do not have a significant role as prey animals in their ecosystems as they're much too large and aggressive for most animals to attack them. Moose calves, on the other hand, will be targeted by many predators like grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, and in rare cases wolverines. In very rare cases where moose feed on seaweed in the ocean, there have been reports of them being hunted and killed by orca whales when attacked by a pack of wolves, moose will first flee and if they can't escape, then they'll attack.

(14:53): Moose will retreat into shallow water or back into dense brush in order to slow down the wolves movements and make them easier to defend against. Human related deaths account for more deaths per year than anything else. It's estimated that around 2000 to 3,500 moose are killed because of humans and human practices per year. Humans in the past have also been responsible for a significant decline in moose population due to unregulated hunting practices. Luckily, most of these hunting practices are no longer around, but climate change is also having a surprisingly significant effect on them as well. In addition to all the normal effects of climate change like habitat loss, moose are experiencing an increase in disease. Winter ticks are more prevalent now because of the warming climate and while these ticks don't spread disease, they attach to moose by the thousands. They can stay attached to moose for six months causing dangerous levels of blood loss.

(15:59): Snails are also causing a decline in moose populations. They carry different diseases that are harmful to moose like brain warm because of climate change. More snails are living in moose habitats as the environment is warmer and more moist than before. The moose will eat the snails when they forage, which can pass diseases onto them. So as you can see, moose are facing a lot of issues and luckily there are some organizations that are working to help them and their habitats like American Forests, Alaskan Conservation Foundation and Wildlife Conservation Society. Thank you so much for coming on this adventure with me as we explored the world of Moose. You can find the sources that we use for this podcast and links to organizations that we reference at onwildlife.org. You can also email us at on Wildlife dot podcast@gmail.com and you can follow us on Instagram at On Wildlife or on TikTok at wildlife. Don't forget to tune in next Wednesday for another awesome episode, and that's On Wildlife

Jess Avellino (17:16): You've been listening to On Wildlife with Alex Re. On Wildlife provides general educational information on various topics as a public service, which should not be construed as professional financial, real estate, tax, or legal advice. These are our personal opinions only. Please refer to our full disclaimer policy on our website for full details.