View Full Version : Moose question
DrRichardCranium
04-19-2011, 16:35
Why do you never see moose in zoos?
We've got them here in Columbus in the North America section of the Columbus Zoo.
Because they are not warm and cuddly, nor big and vicious. Just dumb creatures wandering in the woods. That's also the same reason they don't put backpackers in zoos.
bulldog49
04-19-2011, 19:01
Because they are not warm and cuddly, nor big and vicious. Just dumb creatures wandering in the woods. That's also the same reason they don't put backpackers in zoos.
Perfect analogy. :D
sheepdog
04-19-2011, 19:39
because they don't exist.
because they don't exist.
backpackers or moose? :sun
They're just avoiding you. :D
One Half
04-19-2011, 20:06
they're kind of ugly. I lived in Maine from the age of 6 to 17 and never saw one. and I lived in the boonies. Finally saw one in NH on my honeymoon. It was skinny and loosing it's "velvet". Springtime obviously. Very much a let down.
sheepdog
04-19-2011, 20:31
backpackers or moose? :sun
hahahahahahha
DrRichardCranium
04-19-2011, 23:35
Finally found the answer on mooseworld.com:
ever seen moose in a zoo. Do any zoos support moose?
Nutrition has always been a problem for captive moose. Simply put manufactured feeds don't keep them alive for long so most zoos were reluctant to exhibit moose. A few years ago the Moose Research Center in Kenai, Alaska made big improvements on the formula of a moose diet. Animals do much better on this—both living longer and maintaining condition at a higher level. It's still not perfect but animals can live on this diet alone. Because of this "breakthrough" some facilities are placing moose in their exhibits.
Pedaling Fool
04-20-2011, 08:11
That makes sense, I guess, don't really know anything about the diet of moose.
I never really thought about it, but when I first read you post about the lack of moose in zoos, I was like, :-?Hmmm....yeah, why don't you see moose in zoos:D
Pedaling Fool
04-20-2011, 08:12
they're kind of ugly. I lived in Maine from the age of 6 to 17 and never saw one. and I lived in the boonies. Finally saw one in NH on my honeymoon. It was skinny and loosing it's "velvet". Springtime obviously. Very much a let down.
It's only the female that are ugly;) When I first saw one it was a femal and I thought it was a mule:eek: Really I did.
Feral Bill
04-20-2011, 12:20
When you see a moose cruising through a deep willow thicket they seem a whole lot less silly looking than say, standing in a road.
Seeing a big bull moose out on the trail is pretty damned exciting! I have seen three while out backpacking, it's awesome...
The Bull Moose
- Alden Nowlan
Down from the purple mist of trees on the mountain,
lurching through forests of white spruce and cedar,
stumbling through tamarack swamps,
came the bull moose
to be stopped at last by a pole-fenced pasture.
Too tired to turn or, perhaps, aware
there was no place left to go, he stood with the cattle.
They, scenting the musk of death, seeing his great head
like the ritual mask of a blood god, moved to the other end
of the field, and waited.
The neighbours heard of it, and by afternoon
cars lined the road. The children teased him
with alder switches and he gazed at them
like an old, tolerant collie. The woman asked
if he could have escaped from a Fair.
The oldest man in the parish remembered seeing
a gelded moose yoked with an ox for plowing.
The young men snickered and tried to pour beer
down his throat, while their girl friends took their pictures.
And the bull moose let them stroke his tick-ravaged flanks,
let them pry open his jaws with bottles, let a giggling girl
plant a little purple cap
of thistles on his head.
When the wardens came, everyone agreed it was a shame
to shoot anything so shaggy and cuddlesome.
He looked like the kind of pet
women put to bed with their sons.
So they held their fire. But just as the sun dropped in the river
the bull moose gathered his strength
like a scaffolded king, straightened and lifted his horns
so that even the wardens backed away as they raised their rifles.
When he roared, people ran to their cars. All the young men
leaned on their automobile horns as he toppled.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwCyV6xOxpw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU8DOj2tIuo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alden_Nowlan
Female moose at Toronto zoo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4rcXUmKO6A
Funky White Moose at Milwaukee County Zoo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UH9rZ5p6bw
"If the poor rabbits knew I was selling their dead bodies for wine, they would be heartbroken."
— David Adams Richards (Mercy Among the Children: A Novel)
LoneRidgeRunner
04-20-2011, 16:09
Because they're very ugly for one of two reasons or maybe both..1) They were created from left over parts.. or 2) They fell out of a ugly tree and hit every limb..
lol
Interesting about diet. I read somewhere that white-tailed dear can survive cold nights on their natural winter diet of bark or whatever, but will freeze to death on a diet of corn even though the corn has more calories. This probably applies less to humans, because we are basically scavengers and omnivores that can eat just about anything, but it does make sense that more natural diets are better because they are the diets that we have evolved and adapted to, and that the flora in our guts have evolved and adapted to.
TIDE-HSV
04-20-2011, 18:27
Because they're very ugly for one of two reasons or maybe both..1) They were created from left over parts.. or 2) They fell out of a ugly tree and hit every limb..
I've heard them described as a mule beaten over the nose with a baseball bat. I've had to pack in close quarters with them both in Wyoming and in Canada. They're surly and dangerous beasts...
The Bull Moose
- Alden Nowlan
Down from the purple mist of trees on the mountain, ....
JAK, thanks for that post, regretted never seeing a moose on my hike. Heard one walking downhill towards our camp once in Maine while fixing breakfast. Whispered to my hiking partner at the time (the Wizard) to hold still. he being hard of hearing hollered back "WHAT DID U SAY". Moose turned and ran back uphil, sounded like a tank.
DrRichardCranium
04-20-2011, 18:50
When Mooses Come Walking by Arlo Guthrie
Mooses come walking over the hill
Mooses come walking, they rarely stand still
When mooses come walking they go where they will
When mooses come walking over the hill
Mooses look into your window at night
They look to the left and they look to the right
The mooses are smiling, they think it's a zoo
And that's why the mooses like looking at you
So, if you see mooses while lying in bed
It's best to just stay there pretending you're dead
The mooses will leave and you'll get the thrill
Of seeing the mooses go over the hill
I've heard them described as a mule beaten over the nose with a baseball bat. I've had to pack in close quarters with them both in Wyoming and in Canada. They're surly and dangerous beasts...
When I was a kid, moose were regularly accused of forcing people to climb trees to escape them. I even climbed a few trees myself when a moose showed up and refused to leave. It was common to hear excited reports of being "treed by a moose."
I've since learned that moose have poor eyesight, and are curious critters. If one climbs a tree a moose will sense something is happening and hang around for hours hoping to find out what.
So I stopped being scared and climbing trees. Now I just walk through groups of moose blocking trails. Just to be on the cautious side, I do mutter a few gentle words of friendship.
TIDE-HSV
04-21-2011, 11:35
When I was a kid, moose were regularly accused of forcing people to climb trees to escape them. I even climbed a few trees myself when a moose showed up and refused to leave. It was common to hear excited reports of being "treed by a moose."
I've since learned that moose have poor eyesight, and are curious critters. If one climbs a tree a moose will sense something is happening and hang around for hours hoping to find out what.
So I stopped being scared and climbing trees. Now I just walk through groups of moose blocking trails. Just to be on the cautious side, I do mutter a few gentle words of friendship.
I've also tried the sweet-talking tactic. Once, in the Tetons, I left the trail to clamber up to a thicket to relieve myself. Mid-stream, I look up and there's a female, eying me from about ten yards. Her head was down and swinging back and forth, which I took to probably be a bad sign. I thought I'd seen something similar - in bull rings. So, I started to talk to her, trying to make my voice soothing. She didn't charge. When I got back down to the trail, my wife said "Who was that you were talking to up there?" Again, in the Wind Rivers, I camped out on a peninsula into a small lake. The tongue of land got really narrow where the trail crossed over to the main land, and I had to use that trail several times a day. Well, a moose took up residence in the shallows just off the trail, and eyed me balefully every time I passed. The soft-talking appeared to work there also...
:-)
Crazy numbers of moose in Newfoundland these days, like 150,000 or more. I've always noticed them to be docile except when in rut, or when they find themselves having wandered into a suburb before dawn and then get disturbed when people and traffic get moving. Even then it takes more than a few people to get them seriously disturbed, unless in rut. Dogs can be a problem also. They are less excitable than smaller deer because of their size. No real enemies once full grown, at least not on the east coast. They might be more excitable in wolf or grizzly country. Not sure.
No need to put in a zoo an animal that is so common. They are all over the place once you get north enough.
David
hikerboy57
04-21-2011, 14:23
No need to put in a zoo an animal that is so common. They are all over the place once you get north enough.
David
didnt stop them from putting a bear in the Bear Mtn Zoo.The first time I climbed Katahdin in the 80s, we thought we'd see plenty of moose, but the only moose photos I took were of the 2" plastic moose I brought with me.We laughed while drinking Poland Spring bottled water("straight from Maine")
Old Grouse
04-21-2011, 15:40
:-)
Crazy numbers of moose in Newfoundland these days, like 150,000 or more. I've always noticed them to be docile except when in rut, or when they find themselves having wandered into a suburb before dawn and then get disturbed when people and traffic get moving. Even then it takes more than a few people to get them seriously disturbed, unless in rut. Dogs can be a problem also. They are less excitable than smaller deer because of their size. No real enemies once full grown, at least not on the east coast. They might be more excitable in wolf or grizzly country. Not sure.
As I'm sure JAK knows, moose were introduced to Newfoundland just a little over a century ago. I guess it took.
WingedMonkey
04-21-2011, 15:49
If everyone thinks moose are so ugly, why are so many of them hanging on walls?
:p
TIDE-HSV
04-21-2011, 20:08
If everyone thinks moose are so ugly, why are so many of them hanging on walls?
:p
They didn't have a choice?