Alaska
is famous for animals big and small, and perhaps the most noteworthy
large and tiny are moose and mosquitoes. June is the time we see a
lot of both here at the cabin. We kill swarms of the latter but enjoy
watching the former. Here follow some anecdotes about them this
year. This article is about moose; the following one is about
mosquitoes.
Of
ungulates, Southeast Alaska has deer (3 feet at shoulder), northern
Alaska has caribou and reindeer (which are domesticated caribou) (4
feet at the shoulder) and our area has moose (6 feet at the
shoulder). Elk have been introduced, too. Moose are HUGE. They are
not only much taller, but also much bulkier than these other animals.
Adults weigh between 1200 and 2000 pounds (compared to a light boned
Wisconsin deer of 300 pounds). In fact, I understand that they are the largest species on the American continents, unless you count bison, which are shorter but even heavier.
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| June calf near blue kayak for size comparison |
Moose
calves are born in May/early June, and they walk nearly immediately,
to be less vulnerable to predators (bear and wolf), which kill one out of three during
their first year. We see them once our “yard” greens up. The
mother must be ravenous at that point after a long winter,
particularly when she is pregnant. Can you imagine being a 1200
pound pregnant herbivore rummaging around through 8 foot snow looking
for willow branches to keep up your weight and strength!!!!?
 |
| Right outside the window, munching on fireweed |
Our
current “Mom” looks enormous – her legs are probably five feet
long. Her coloring exactly matches the spruce bark, and it amazes
me how something so large can virtually disappear mere yards from my
position. The other day, I watched her scarf up fireweed,
elderberry, and cranberry bushes as she ambled past our cabin on her
way toward young birch trees along the lake. Even though I saw where
she had gone and could see the movement of the birch branches being
stripped of leaves, I could no longer see the moose herself. This
experience reminded me of that movie, "Predator," in which you can't
see the alien bad guy himself, just his movement. All ungulates can
be quiet, but these huge beasts are far more stealthy than one would
expect of such an unwieldy looking animal traversing ground covered
with dead leaves and broken branches. One dawn, my husband was
startled when he opens curtains to see a moose two feet beyond the
glass. “Good morning, neighbor!” Another time we startled a
buck that was lying down in the blueberry thicket. It is probably
the calves that we hear first, as they trot along behind their
mother, trying to keep up with her long strides. In June, I don't
see the little ones eating much greenery. Rather, they reach up to
nurse whenever Mom stops to eat a shrub or branch or to investigate a
sound or smell with her large ears and nose.
