What Do Moose Eat? | Out of doors Life

With their surprising stature and loud calls, it’s no shock that individuals are fascinated by moose and all of the finer particulars of their existence, together with what moose eat. They’re a well-liked recreation species for critical hunters in northern reaches of North America and Eurasia. They produce a whole bunch of kilos of meat that may maintain a household by way of the entire yr. (When you’re concerned about studying the best way to hunt moose, learn our information.) So whether or not you’re concerned about simply seeing moose from a distance or getting shut and harvesting one, an excellent first query to ask is “what do moose eat?”

As is the case with every other wildlife species with a large geographic distribution, a moose’s weight-reduction plan relies upon vastly on the place they dwell and what forage species can be found to them. Their diets additionally change with the seasons, since most of their vary sees such broad shifts in local weather all year long.

Irrespective of the place they dwell or what time of yr it’s, moose require plenty of meals. When you’ve ever tried to fathom how huge a moose is, know first {that a} wholesome grownup moose can eat 40 to 60 kilos of meals a day, or roughly 16,000 energy, when it’s accessible. Seeing as how an grownup bull moose can weigh as much as 1,600 kilos and stand 6 toes tall on the shoulder, it is smart that they’d want a lot sustenance. However the place does all that meals come from?

A Moose’s Favourite Meals Sources

Regardless of how troublesome it’s to nail down a generic reply to “what do moose eat,” Dr. Steve Windels, an award-winning moose biologist at Voyageurs Nationwide Park, supplied a preliminary record of meals sources that moose appear to gravitate towards. They embrace:

• Aspen
• Birch
• Willow
• Hazel
• Pond lilies
• Pond weeds
• Horsetail
• Canadian yew

As the most important member of the Cervidae household (which incorporates deer and elk, amongst different species), moose diets are shockingly much like deer diets, simply at a a lot increased quantity. The leaves, buds, and twigs on the ends of tree branches—what habitat managers name “woody browse”—contains most of what a moose eats. However these huge critters additionally eat plenty of nutrient-dense aquatic vegetation and even crops every now and then, Windels says.

He describes moose as a “circumboreal species,” which suggests moose dwell all through the northernmost circumference of the planet in Alaska, Canada, and northern Eurasia. Their vary extends down into the northernmost states within the U.S., the Rocky Mountains, and southern New England. This big selection means moose in numerous elements of the world eat completely different sorts of vegetation.

“Moose are generalist herbivores, in order that they eat all kinds of stuff, nevertheless it varies from location to location based mostly largely on what’s accessible,” Windels tells Out of doors Life. “Right here in northern Minnesota they’re consuming plenty of deciduous twigs and leaves, like aspen, birch, willows, dogwoods, and shrubby vegetation. When you go someplace like Scandinavia, they eat plenty of conifers.”

Moose from Maine to Alaska depend on birches, aspens, and willows. In addition they browse on maple, pin cherry, and mountain ash bushes within the Northeast. In British Columbia, they eat highbush cranberries, false boxwood, and a few subalpine fir bushes. When you go someplace in Scandinavia like Sweden, you’ll see moose chewing on pine bushes, in addition to bilberry and lingonberry shrubs. (Bilberries are virtually interchangeable with blueberries and huckleberries, and lingonberries are often known as mountain cranberries or cowberries.)

Aquatic Vegetation

Some of the vital elements of what moose eat is discovered underwater. Aquatic vegetation provides moose with a lot of their requisite sodium and different minerals, Wendels says. Pondweed, pond lilies, horsetail, and burweed are all well-liked throughout their North American distribution. 

Moose have been recognized to dive properly over a dozen toes deep to get this meals, the Canadian Broadcasting Company stories. Their nostrils are tailored to behave as valves that may shut water out whereas they dunk their lengthy, sloping heads to seize at vegetation.

In different elements of the world, moose don’t rely as a lot on aquatic weeds and vegetation.

“Understanding what aquatic vegetation they eat is a little bit trickier as a result of it’s arduous to see what they’re doing beneath water,” Wendels says. “They appear to eat plenty of aquatics right here, however they don’t actually eat plenty of aquatics in Scandinavia. So once more, it varies by location.”

Agriculture

Whenever you consider moose habitat, you most likely consider thick timber, plenty of undergrowth, and water, fairly than a cultivated subject. However moose in some elements of the nation will take to agricultural fields to eat giant portions of crops, identical to deer and elk do. In western North Dakota, for instance, moose eat sunflowers, soybeans, corn, and different standing crops. 

They don’t have a lot alternative in areas dominated by ag, Wendels factors out. However it doesn’t cease there. Moose may even hunt down sure crops in areas with loads of wooded moose habitat—locations like Maine. 

“Maine has a extremely excessive density of moose, they usually develop plenty of broccoli in Maine,” he says. “That they had moose consuming in these broccoli fields and inflicting issues.” 

Seasonal Shifts in What Moose Eat

The elements of the world the place moose dwell expertise excessive local weather shifts all year long, which suggests a moose’s weight-reduction plan does, too.

“Within the wintertime, when the leaves drop off deciduous bushes, [moose are] simply consuming the twigs. That meals has much more fiber in it and tends to be loads much less digestible,” Wendels says. “Come summer season, when issues do inexperienced up, they’re focusing extra on leaves once more. However within the winter, they’re simply attempting to outlive and get by way of.”

Like different huge recreation species, moose endure meager occasions within the winter, Wendels says. They lose plenty of weight, on account of restricted availability of vitamins and energy. When winter stretches out and spring green-up will get delayed prefer it did within the winter of 2022-2023, that’s when plenty of moose mortality occurs. It additionally places immense stress on pregnant cow moose. 

“They find yourself ravenous to demise or succumbing to predation as a result of they’re so skinny and weak,” Wendels says. “For females particularly, it’s powerful. Most of them might be pregnant and gestating calves, generally twins, in order that they’re consuming a weight-reduction plan that’s not tremendous nutritious and nonetheless investing plenty of power into rising that fetus. That’s plenty of further stress.”

Moose Food plan FAQs

Ultimate Ideas on What Moose Eat

These big cervids, identical to every other wild recreation animals, appeal to plenty of consideration and curiosity from people, and particularly hunters. Realizing what moose eat is useful for a wide range of causes. The higher hunters perceive the diets of their recreation species, the higher likelihood they’ve of being in the proper place on the proper time and having a profitable hunt. (If you wish to be taught the best way to course of moose steak, learn our information.) 

So seek for moose like an professional and search for ample willow, aspen, and birch bushes, shrubby progress with plenty of berries, and close by water that gives a wide range of pond weeds and different aquatic vegetation. If there’s a moose close by to seek out, there’s an excellent likelihood you’ll discover it.