The
moose is the largest species in the deer family. Moose are
distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the
family have antlers with a dendritic ("twig-like") configuration. They
have a life span of 15 to 25 years and can grow in size of 550Kilos to
700 kilos and stand six feet at their shoulders and extend to almost 9
feet tall to the tips of their antlers.
Moose
typically inhabit boreal and mixed deciduous forests of the Northern
Hemisphere in temperate to subarctic climates. Moose used to have a much
wider range but hunting and other human activities greatly reduced it
over the years. Moose have been reintroduced to some of their former
habitats. Currently, most moose are found in Canada, Alaska, Scandinavia
and Russia. Their diet consists of both terrestrial and aquatic
vegetation. The most common moose predators are wolves, bears, and
humans. Unlike most other deer species, moose are solitary animals and
do not form herds. Although generally slow-moving and sedentary, moose
can become aggressive and move surprisingly quickly if angered or
startled. Their mating season in the autumn can lead to spectacular
fights between males competing for a female.
In
North America, the moose range includes almost all of Canada (excluding
the arctic), most of Alaska, northern New England and upstate New York,
the upper Rocky Mountains, northern Minnesota, Michigan's Upper
Peninsula, and Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Within this massive range,
the most diverse range of subspecies exist, containing habitat for four
of the six subspecies. In western portions of the continent, moose
populations extend well north into Canada (British Columbia and Alberta)
and more isolated groups have been verified as far south as the
mountains of Utah and Colorado and as far west as the Lake Wenatchee
area of the Washington Cascades. The range includes Wyoming, Montana,
Idaho, and smaller areas of Washington and Oregon. In 1978, a few
breeding pairs were reintroduced in western Colorado, and the state's
moose population is now more than 1,000 with great potential to grow. In
the 1940s, an effort was made to introduce moose to the Oregon Coast
Range, but this effort failed due to the hunting activities of the local
Native American population.
In
North-eastern North America, the Eastern moose's history is very well
documented: moose meat was often a staple in the diet of Native
Americans going back centuries and it is a tribe that occupied present
day coastal Rhode Island that gave this deer its distinctive name in
American English. The Native Americans often used moose hides for
leather and its meat as an ingredient in pemmican, a type of dried jerky
used as a source of sustenance in winter or on long journeys from home.
Eastern tribes also valued moose leather as a source to make moccasins
and other decorations.
The
historical range of the subspecies extended from well into Quebec, the
Maritimes, and Eastern Ontario south to include all of New England
finally ending in the very north-eastern tip of Pennsylvania in the
west, cutting off somewhere near the mouth of the Hudson River in the
east. The moose has been extinct in much of the eastern U.S. for as long
as 150 years, due to colonial era overhunting and destruction of its
habitat: Dutch, French, and British colonial sources all attest to its
presence in the mid 17th century from Maine south to areas within a
hundred miles of present day Manhattan. However, by the 1870s, only a
handful of moose existed in this entire region in very remote pockets of
forest; less than 20% of suitable habitat remained.
Since the 1980s, however, moose populations have rebounded, thanks to regrowth of plentiful food sources, abandonment of farmland, better land management, cleanup of pollution, and natural dispersal from the Canadian Maritimes and Quebec. South of the Canadian border Maine has most of the population with a 2012 headcount of about 76,000 moose.
In 2014 we will be headed to areas where Moose reside. Please consider joining us for these workshop below.
Yukon Wildlife Workshop - http://northof49photography.com/yukon-wildlife-tour
Northern Ontario Workshop - http://northof49photography.com/autumn-in-Ontario
Newfoundland Workshop - http://northof49photography.com/new-page-1
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