Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
23
The Great Strípper: The Moose
MYTHS
Moose are slow-moving and ponderous.
Moose are quite tame and safe to pet.
Moose drive out deer.
HUGE, BULKY, AND NEARLY BLACK, MOOSE (ALCES ALCES) ARE SPECTACULAR
CREATURES. With the possible exception of a bear, no other North American mammal can draw a
crowd of curious and excited spectators as quickly as a moose. Let a moose be sighted, and soon cars
line both sides of the road, disgorging crowds of eager people with cameras and binoculars. If ever an
animal deserved the title—now something of a cliché—“charismatic megafauna,” it's surely this giant
beast.
Moose are believed to have arrived in North America via the Siberian land bridge about ten thousand
years ago, during the last ice age, and they've been here ever since. They're very much a northern
animal: it's estimated that over 700,000 moose—about 80 percent of our continent's moose popula-
tion—reside in Canada, with many of the remainder found in Alaska. In the lower forty-eight states,
moose are mostly restricted to the northern Rocky Mountain states, the very northern portions of the
Great Lakes states, and northern New England and New York.
Although moose numbers have historically remained fairly stable—and perhaps even in-
creased—throughout much of their range, the situation has been vastly different in New England and
New York. Archaeological evidence indicates that moose were the dominant large herbivore in that re-
gion when the first European settlers arrived. As far as those settlers were concerned, they had landed
in fearsome wilderness that had to be tamed and made to look as much as possible like the England
from which they had departed to seek religious freedom (which they promptly denied everyone else)
and the opportunity for greater prosperity.
