THE YOUNG (CALVES):  

The female has one or two calves. They generally give birth to a single calf.  Twins are common when there is an adequate food supply. They are born in the late spring (end of May or early June). They have reddish brown coats. By fall their coats are dark brown like the adults.

The young are unable to walk for a few days. By the time they are two-three weeks old they are able to walk about with the mother and search for food. By fall they are fully weaned (stop drinking their mother's milk). The calves stay with the mother for about a year - until she is ready to give birth to new calves. The father does not participate in raising its young.

SENSES:

The moose has poor eyesight and relies on a keen sense of smell and hearing. It stops and listens often while eating.

They have monocular vision, eyes are located on side of head and can move 360 degrees. Side. They have a hard time seeing non-moving things. Moose do not see well at close range and must roll their eyes forward in order to see items up close. This is not due so much to poor vision as it is to eye placement. Because their eyes are set more to the sides of the head they have a rather large blind spot in front of them. Moose can also move each eye independently. To see an object below them, a moose must tilt its head downward or twist its eyeball  They have excellent hearing. They can hear a person 1 mile away in an open area. Their smell is 200 times greater than a human and about 4 times greater than most dogs.

They have an olfactory sensor, which can detect airborne chemical releases in the breeding season. So they can tell if a cow is in heat.  

SWIMMING:

A BULL MOOSE SWIMMING ACROSS A POND

They are excellent swimmers. They occasionally are seen swimming miles from the nearest shore. They can even dive underwater for a short period of time (under a minute). They also can swim up to 6 mph.

Moose will also lie in shallow water to get away from biting insects or to cool off. At times, the animal may be completely submerged for many seconds underwater in order to yank up plants from the bottom. When black flies and mosquitoes torment it, the Moose may nearly submerge itself or roll in a wallow to acquire a protective coating of mud.

VOICE:

Moose mostly vocalize in the breeding season. They are quieter during the rest of the year.

Some of the calls include

Gluck: A non-aggressive calls when bulls approach each other in a non-aggressive manner.

Muwahhh: An aggressive call between bulls

Mooo ooah: When a cows in heat announcing their breeding status

Bleeting: Calves give this sound when hungry, frightened, or separated from mother. Adults also give call when stressed.

Vocalizations include the bull’s tremendous bellow, and also "croaks" and "barks" during the rut. The cow has a long, quavering moan, which ends in a cough-like moo-agh, and also a grunt used in gathering the young. The bull rushes through the forest looking for grunting cows and challenging rival bulls with bellows.

They have some non-vocal ways of communicating like thrashing branches, cracking sticks, and urinating  

TEMPERATURES:

Moose do not manage well when get above 57 degrees F or when winter temperatures are higher than 23 degrees F. They try to adjust by spending more time in the shade or in cooling water or at higher elevations. The stress may cause the moose to stop eating. If continuously this will result in poor health and possible starvation in the winter.

Animals that enter the winter in poor health are more likely to suffer from poor reproductive success in the spring. This is due to either re-absorption of the fetus, still born calves or calves that are too weak at birth to rise and suckle.  

FOOD:

A YOUNG BULL FEEDING ON AQUATIC VEGETATION

Moose are browsers. Using their flexible lips, they select the most tender, nutrient-rich plants, which they transfer to their grinding molars.

In the summer aquatic vegetation grows right after ice out and peaks in June and July. Aquatic plants are more digestible for moose. Moose wade, swim, and even dive to depths of up to 15 feet, to reach the water lilies, arrowheads, rushes, sedges, and other aquatic plants, which compose their preferred diet

They usually wade in the water up to their shoulders to eat. Then they stick their heads underwater to get at the roots and stems of underwater plants.

They also feed on branches and leaves of trees.  Willows, Birch, and Aspen are their favorite trees. They like to nip the buds.  It is not unusual for a moose to strip bark from trees when food sources are low. They also eat the twigs, roots, bark, and shoots of woody plants. They use their lower incisors mouth to strip leaves, twigs, and buds.

In the winter, moose they are forced to eat twigs, buds, bark and balsam fir needles.

An average moose can eat 40 to 50 pounds of food each day. A lactating cow has the highest nutritional requirements of any moose and eats over 66 lbs of browse a day.

They are ruminants (species with a four chambered stomach). They regurgitate their food.  and check it again and again. This process continues until the plant particles are sufficiently digested to pass on to the intestine. The bacteria in their stomach helps them digest and get nutritional benefits.

Like Humans most mammals crave salt including moose. Salt is difficult to get in the wild. They do get some salt on the side of the road and in aquatic vegetation. Sodium is essential to many metabolic processes.