What I Have Learned

During the past few weeks, moose have occupied my thoughts a great deal. I have been fortunate enough to see them on a regular basis. Sometimes this happened from a distance as I drove, and other times it has been as close as my back yard. I have read a lot about them, and learned a lot of things that surprised me.

Moose are strong and rugged animals. They live and thrive in some of the harshest and coldest climates in the world. They are able to survive for months on twigs and limbs. They face challenges from hunters, from automobiles, and sometimes from predators like bears and wolves.

Moose also face unseen challenges. One surprising fact about moose is the sensitivity of their digestive systems. Their diets are complex and hard to duplicate. These complicated nutritional needs are the main reason there have been few successful attempts at domestication of the moose. Zoos rarely keep moose because they cannot provide nutrition to sustain them. Efforts at moose farming have largely failed for the same reason. Humans just cannot seem to provide the same thing nature provides for them.

Moose are highly susceptible to a number of diseases carried by other animals. For instance, the moose and the whitetail deer seldom live in close proximity to each other. A certain common bacteria carried harmlessly by deer are fatal to moose. Deer ticks can also be fatal to moose, as can a number of ailments that are only minor illnesses to livestock.

Moose are solitary animals, too. A newborn calf stays with its mother for the first eleven months or so of its life. After that, the cow and calf part for good. Other than the short rutting season each fall, moose stay to themselves and do not socialize with each other. They don't seek help from each other to survive.

When I started this project, I liked the moose simply because I thought they were impressive looking animals. Now that I know more about them, I really am in awe of them. It would be easy to take them for granted, to think their massive size makes it easy for them. In fact, they face great odds in their quest for survival -- hunger, cold, snow, predators, humans, disease, cars -- and they face them alone.

I think a pet bull moose would be a fun thing to have. That wouldn't be fair to the moose, though. A moose belongs out in nature. In snow, not a barn. Eating twigs, not hay. Wild and free, not fenced and trapped. That is what he deserves, and that is what I hope he gets. I think I would like the same thing (except for the eating twigs part).



Note: All the photos in the blog are mine except for the one noted from adn.com and this last one. I found this last one online thanks to a google search, and it is so awesome I had to include it. It was found at a blog by L.D. Jackson's blog titled, oddly enough, Political Realities,