Moose

The species Alces alces is called the moose by North Americans (a name derived from Eastern Abenaki moz) or the elk by Europeans. more...

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Alces alces is the largest existing member of the deer family Cervidae, distinguished from the others by the palmate antlers of its males. These antlers are unique in shape, having a more cup-like shape as opposed to the common twig-like figuration of others in the deer family.It should be noted that in North America, the name elk is given to the second largest species of deer - an animal also called the wapiti.

Taxonomy

Traditionally the moose has been regarded as a single species, Alces alces, with several subspecies. Some recent sources, however, have promoted the North American race to be a fully separate species, Alces americanus, most notably Boyeskorov (1999). Most moose are grey or brown colored.

Habitat and range

Moose are typical of boreal and mixed deciduous forests of the Northern Hemisphere in temperate to subarctic climates. In North America, that includes almost all of Canada, Alaska, much of New England, the upper Rocky Mountains, Northeastern Minnesota, and Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Isle Royale in Lake Superior. Small but present moose populations have been verified as far south as the mountains of Colorado. Moose have been successfully introduced on the island of Newfoundland in 1904 where they are now the dominant ungulate, and somewhat less successfully on Anticosti Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Ten moose were also introduced in Fiordland, New Zealand in 1910, but they were thought to have died off. Nevertheless, there have been reported sightings that were thought to be false until moose hair samples were found by a New Zealand scientist in 2002.

Physical characteristics

Antlers

The male moose's antlers arise as cylindrical beams projecting on each side at right angles to the middle line of the skull, which after a short distance divide in a fork-like manner. The lower prong of this fork may be either simple, or divided into two or three tines, with some flattening.

In the North Siberian race of the elk (Alces alces bedfordiae) the posterior division of the main fork divides into three tines, with no distinct flattening. In the common elk (Alces alces alces), on the other hand, this branch usually expands into a broad palmation, with one large tine at the base, and a number of smaller snags on the free border.

Read more at Wikipedia.org