Their mom joins them and seems to enjoy drinking the water and licking it from her offspring’s coats. But it’s the calves that are living their best lives, frolicking over the sprinkler and through the jets of water. What a great game for a warm day!
Moose in Alaska
The animals in this video are moose – the largest member of the deer family and with the scientific name Alces alces. Some can grow up to six feet in height and an adult male can weigh up to to1,600 pounds. Not all moose are the brown color that we see in this footage. Their coat can vary from one individual to another and by season. In general, newborn calves are red-brown, which becomes a rust shade as they grow. Adults can be golden brown or black and it is only the males that have antlers. We see the calves accompanied by their mom. A female moose is called a cow and she will usually be ready to breed for the first time at 28 months but it can be earlier. Mating takes place in the fall and calves are born in the spring. At birth, they weigh around 28 pounds but grow rapidly and weigh ten times this by the time they are five months old. By the following fall, they are weaned and the female is mating again. She will chase off her calves in time for her to give birth again.
Feeding Habits of the Moose
Usually, moose only give birth to one calf at a time. However, twins can arrive when food is plentiful so we could conclude that this mom moose has not been short of food! Moose are herbivores and spend all day grazing – during this time, they can consume up to 70 pounds of vegetation. Obviously, they, therefore, like to spend their time in habitats where there are a lot of plants. They like shrubs and will eat conifers such as fir and yew, consuming most parts of the plants – leaves, twigs, bark, cones, and buds. They have a four-chambered stomach to break down tough plant material and their digestion is a process of fermentation and then absorption. In the same way as cows, they regurgitate food (cud) and chew it for a long time before they swallow it. Moose also like aquatic plants and will wade through water to get at them. We wonder what they thought of this sprinkler!
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