Last summer (August, 2023) I observed a female moose right outside of our town limits (see Moose observation in an unlikely habitat).
I assumed it was a dispersing individual only attempting to cut through these unsuitable habitats.
The habitats do not seem fit for a moose as vast, open fields predominate, forest patches are relatively small (I do not believe that either of them separately can support an adult moose, moreover, a female with calves), the forest patches are not connected at all (busy roads cutting through them or vast fields to be crossed in order to get from one to another).
I still believe the individual was dispersing but, apparently, the female stayed in the area.
There has been massive scale deforestation out in the ‘deep country’ and I suppose that this suboptimal habitat might be the only one available presently.
On June 16, 2024, shortly after sunrise (before 5 am), I was walking along a road and I saw a large ungulate emerging from a rather small forest patch.
The large individual was accompanied by two smaller individuals.
At first, my brain refused to trust my senses.
It was clearly a female moose with twins on her trail as moose are rather unmistakable in their shape and in their manner of moving.
Also, moose babies are larger than any other babies (of red deer or roe deer).
Still, I had not expected to see a mother moose (or to see a moose at all) and my mind was trying to convince me that it was a red deer stag with two females (which it, of course, was not) because red deer are frequently seen in the area (stags and calfless females).
By the time I convinced myself to trust my own eyes, the female had gotten out on a wheat field and she was proceeding toward a larger forest massif.
The forest massif she was headed to was perhaps 0.5 km from the smaller forest patch which she had just left.
The reasons why I believe that this is the same individual I observed last autumn and that, at the time, she was, indeed, dispersing (wrapping up her travels):
- It would be very difficult for several female moose to ‘hide’ in this area and while there should be a male that impregnated her after August, I find it improbable that there have been two females around as, in autumn, I observed the individual only ca. 300 metres from June 16 observation;
- In autumn, the female seemed entirely out of place – too large and too obvious, while, presently, she blended into the landscape most masterfully which suggests to me that, last autumn, she had merely arrived into habitats that perhaps were different from her natal grounds but, by this summer, she has learned to become highly inconspicuous;
- In autumn, the female did not have offspring (no calves on sight, behaviour did not suggest that calves were hidden somewhere and she was watching over them) which means she was probably not a resident and/or she was too young to breed.
I would like to address the second issue in further detail.
Last autumn, it was easy to spot the moose and she took time to disappear as if she was unsure which was the best path to take.
As moose, usually, dwell in wilder habitats, further from humans and with fewer fields cutting through their routes, it is very likely the female was confused in this area because she was unaccustomed to using patches of such character.
About 10 months later, the female was evidently familiar with the area and nifty at using it.
In fact, we (my dog and I) were extremely fortunate to have spotted her in the first place because while she was forced to cross several fields of the total length of about 0.5 km, she was visible to someone from the road only for about half a minute.
The female had taken the wheat field which was much more easily travelled than the surrounding rapeseed plantations as wheat is shorter and there are wide tractor tracks that the calves can probably use.
Meanwhile, the shortness of the crop (faulty in terms of cover) was entirely compensated for by the rapeseed fields.
There was a rapeseed field between the road and the wheat field, and the rapeseed is taller than I am at the moment.
As a result, I could only catch a brief glimpse of the female with her twins, and any other observers from cars would never have noticed her as cars move too fast (even bike-riders might have missed out on her).
Rapeseed itself is not travelled with any comfort because it is tall and tangly, and the canopies have closed above the tractor tracks.
The female moose might forge her trail through it but why bother? The calves would have struggled to get through.
From a somewhat awkward, glaringly unmissable, monumental figure, in 10 months (and probably less than that), she had become an inconspicuous part of the landscape, capable of guiding her calves safely around in this area where, in order to reach another forest patch, one has to travel across plain fields over at least 0.5 km.
The female was leaving a small forest patch where hardly she could have raised her young.
The young might have grown up in the larger forest massif she was returning to (after all, it was 5 am, almost full light conditions, traffic soon resumed on the road).
I wonder when the female began taking her calves on such trips but it must have been recently – perhaps after the rapeseed began providing cover.
It is a long distance to be travelling out in the open (very risky for a mother with calves) and it is not an easy route, either – the calves would have cut through some rapeseed, they would have had to cross two ditches and the walk is not that short metre-wise, either).
The smaller forest patch has been cleared more recently than the large forest massif.
Perhaps, browse is yet in successional stages compatible with moose’s needs and the reason for making these trips could be those of foraging on young saplings, brambles etc.
Crops and vegetation characteristic of mature forest as well as later successional stages would have been available back in the large forest massif, too.
Additionally, the female might be taken effort to teach her young.
The calves, once they grow up and if they disperse, would be force to travel through similar areas of high disturbance, lack of shelter/cover and limited forage availability.
If the moose population is rather saturated (not owing to its great numbers but owing to loss of habitat), these calves might also end up settling in suboptimal habitats.
A female (if one or both of the twins were female) would also need to raise her young on a landscape where one must be nifty, clever, vigilant and where one must be able to recognize the differences between patches offering good shelter vs. patches offering good forage as well as how to choose safe travel routes amidst the fields, roads and other unfitting terrains.
This female moose has proven to be highly adaptive and efficient if she has even birthed twins and raised them to such a healthy state (both twins looked large, alert, vigorous, lively).
It is amazing that an individual who perhaps arrived from an entirely different landscape has been able to figure out which patches prove what resources and how to connect them where humans have not had the kindness to take care of migration corridors.
I wonder if, during winter, prior to calving, the female explored the area in order to understand the configuration of her resources and which patches should be accessed when.
However, she must have improvised and kept observing also after calving as crops are rotated here and she arrived during the period of harvesting anyway.
Accordingly, the female could not have known ahead that rapeseed would be grown between the easily-traversed wheat and the road.
If she perhaps came from wilder forests, she might not have been familiar with the cover qualities of crops in the first place.
It might be difficult and crucial for these individuals adapting to suboptimal habitats to develop a sense of the landscape features.
Namely, moose might not have instinctively evolved to get a grasp of how tall rapeseed is, how tangley it is, how tractor tracks provide trails for calves, how far from the road she must be in order to avoid being seen etc.
These adaptations would all be the result of conscious reasoning while applying both long-term memory (prior exploration) and short-term grasping of opportunities (e.g., the female might have learned during winter that the small forest patch offered some value in browse but she would have dismissed this memory until conditions emerged that allowed to bring her calves there securely).
I admire this female moose and I am proud she lives so close to my town because, clearly, she is smart, resourceful, an excellent mother and someone who takes what life gives and makes the best of it (makes even two bests of it).
I simply wonder where she actually met her mate but I have not explored the larger forest massif much as it is private property and I can only see it from outside.
Notes by Ieva 