Moose are incredibly large magnificent animals. There are too many facts to share about moose, so I will only point out the interesting ones!
- Male Moose are called Bull Moose. They grow antlers in the winter, then shed them in the summer
- Female Moose are called cows. They attract bulls by deep calls, and strong scents. They do not have antlers.
- Babies are called calf/calves. They are taken care by their mother for 1 year, then they set off on their own. It takes about 4-5 years to grow into an adult
- Moose can live up to 26 years.
- The word moose comes from the Natik word, moos, which means, 'an animal that strips bark off trees'
- The scientific word for moose is Alces alces which means, is a moose
- In Europe and Asia, moose are called elk
- Moose can swim. In fact, they are very good swimmers. They can swim 6 miles/per hour in the water
- They can hold their breath in the water for 1 hour to eat underwater aquatic plants.
Moose are very odd looking. They are animals that have a hump like a bear, hooves like horses, tails like deer's, and bells like roosters. Their poor eyesight affects the way they are attacked. But they have good hearing, an excellent sense of smell, and thick skin to protect them from enemies. Their fur color varies from light beige to black. They weigh approximately up to 1500 lbs. Moose can grow up to 7.5 feet tall. The layers on the antlers are fuzzy skins, called velvet. The antlers that lay on the moose's head are about 4-5 feet across.
Moose eat a lot of plants in the woods. In the winter, moose eat twigs and bark from trees. These trees are: willow, balsam, birch, aspen, dogwood, and maple. In the summer, the moose's favourite foods are water plants and water lilies. They also graze on grass, munch berries, and eat insects. Moose are herbivores and do not eat meat.
