Western Canada Moose Hunting

Western Canada Moose

(Alces alces andersoni)

Current SCI all time record: Score 557

Description: The moose is a tall dark-brown animal with grayish legs and at a distance appears black. A pendant of hair-covered skin called a bell hangs from under the throat. This is variable in size and shape; sometimes it may be almost 2 feet long, at other times practically non-existent. A bull moose in full spread of antlers is an imposing animal. He stands higher at the shoulder than the tallest saddle horse and may weigh as much as 1,800 pounds. Each year, beginning in April, a bull moose grows a set of antlers. These continue to grow all summer, and in the early fall they shed the velvet. After the mating season, during which antlers are used in battles for mates, the bulls start losing their antlers, and this is generally completed by late January.

The moose has long slim legs. Its hooves are cloven (split) and about 5 to 6 inches long. The distinctive hump of the moose is a result of a combination of the high shoulder blades and a series of backbone spines in the neck and shoulder region. The hind quarters are slim and set lower than the front quarters. The tail is short and not seen at a distance. A short heavy neck supports a long narrow head. Much of the head consists of a nose which protrudes over an underslung jaw.

Other Common Names:

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Range: From western Ontario westerly to the Mackenzie Mountains of the Northwest Territories; primarily September-October.

Natural History: At birth a calf moose is a helpless 20-to 35-pound ungainly copy of its mother. It is reddish brown in colour, but by midsummer acquires a dark-brown coat. The newborn calf usually remains hidden for a day or so, but after this it follows the cow in her travels. The calf grows rapidly, feeding on leaves and twigs as well as milk from the cow. Growth is rapid, with the calf soon gaining a pound or more per day. When it is weaned, in November, the calf often weighs over 300 pounds. Growth is slowed in winter but resumes the next spring. The cow drives the yearling away just before the birth of her new calf. Body growth of the moose is rapid in the second year, but adult size is not achieved until the moose is 4 or 5 years old. After 7 or 8 years of age, a moose's teeth begin to wear down, and this contributes to starvation in winter as the animal continues to age. Few moose in British Columbia live to be older than 17 years.

In the winter the moose lives on the twigs of shrubs and trees. His strong jaws have no difficulty in snapping the frozen stems. By using its powerful neck a moose can break branches more than an inch thick. The many trees so broken after a winter's feeding lead some people to believe that moose ride trees down with their chests. This is not true.

When food supplies are low, bark is eaten in quantity.

An adult moose eats 25 to 40 pounds of twigs a day in winter. This may consist of several thousand small twigs or a few hundred large ones.

The most popular winter food of moose in British Columbia is willow. Twigs of aspen, serviceberry, maple, birch, and red osier dogwood are also eaten in great quantity. Leaves and twigs of false box are a favoured winter food, but this small shrub is usually buried deep under the snow. Conifers such as spruce and lodgepole pine will not sustain moose, although some types of fir and yew are eaten readily.

In summer, moose live on leafy vegetation and on aquatic plants. Leaves are stripped from shrubs with the teeth and the flexible lips. Several pounds can be swallowed in a few minutes. Like all cud-chewers, the food is later regurgitated for further chewing. Fifty or more pounds of food per day is eaten in summer. This leafy food has a high water content, which contributes to the weight of food consumed.

In aquatic feeding, the moose may feed on sedges or horsetails in shallow water or on bur-reeds that float on the surface. Sometimes he dives deeply for pond weeds or water lilies.

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