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Dimensions2592 x 3872
Original file size4.51 MB
Image typeJPEG
(�2009) Moose (Cow with Calf)

(�2009) Moose (Cow with Calf)

August 5, 2009; Moose Road; Grand Teton National Park.

From Wikipedia:
The moose (North America) or Eurasian elk (Europe) (Alces alces) is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic ("twig-like") configuration. Moose typically inhabit boreal and mixed deciduous forests of the Northern Hemisphere in temperate to subarctic climates. Moose used to have a much wider range but hunting and other human activities greatly reduced it over the years. Moose have been re-introduced to some of their former habitats. Their diet consists of both terrestrial and aquatic vegetation. The most common moose predators are wolves, bears, and humans. Unlike most other deer species, moose are solitary animals and do not form herds. Although generally slow-moving and sedentary, moose can become aggressive and move surprisingly fast if angered or startled. Their mating season in the autumn can lead to spectacular fights between males competing for the right to mate with a particular female.

The animal bearing the scientific name Alces alces is known in Britain as the "elk",[2] and in North America as the "moose".
The British English word "elk" has cognates in other Indo-European languages, for example elg in Danish/Norwegian, ?lg in Swedish, Elch in German and ?o? in Polish. Confusingly, the word elk is used in North America to refer to a different animal, the elk or less commonly wapiti (Cervus canadensis), which is similar though slightly smaller (the North American species is the second largest deer species) and behaviorally and genetically divergent from the smaller red deer of central and western Europe. Presumably early European explorers in North America called it elk because of its size and presumably because, as men coming from the British Isles they would have had no opportunity to see the difference between a member of the genus Cervus and an animal fitting the description of Alces at home, where the latter was nowhere present in the 17th and 18th century.
The word moose first entered English by 1606,[3] and is a borrowing from Algonquian languages (compare Narragansett moos and Eastern Abenaki mos, according to early sources likely derived from moosu meaning "he strips off"),[4] possibly involving forms from multiple languages mutually reinforcing one another. The Proto-Algonquian form was *mo?swa.[5]
A mature male moose is referred to as a bull, a mature female moose is a cow, and an immature moose of either sex is a calf.