The following is actually the mating habits of moose. I just wanted to look like I filled out my profile.

The breeding season, or rut, begins in mid-September. Moose sometimes take more than one mate, but usually a bull stays with a particular cow for as long as it will take for the cow to complete her estrus cycle and be bred. The bull will then begin searching for his next girlfriend.

A good food supply improves breeding success. On good range, such as the parkland areas, more than 90 percent of the cows become pregnant and up to 30 percent bear twins. Very rarely, triplets are observed. However, when the food supply is poor, rates of pregnancy can drop to 50 percent, and the twinning rate spirals to almost to zero. An example of this would be the far northern boreal zones where birth rates are the lowest.

At birth a calf moose is a tiny, ungainly copy of its mother. If it is one of twins it may only weigh 6 kg; if born singly, between 11 and 16 kg.


Calves are helpless at birth. The mother keeps them in seclusion for a couple of days, hidden from their many enemies in a thicket or on an island.

Of all North American big-game animals, the moose calf gains weight the fastest. During the first month after birth it may gain more than half a kilogram a day and later in the summer may begin to put on more than 2 kg a day for a time. At the age of only a few days a calf can outrun a human and swim readily.

Calves stay with the cow until she calves again the following spring. At that time she drives off her yearling(s)—no doubt a difficult experience for the "teenage" moose.

Bears and wolves prey on moose. Black and grizzly bears have been known to prey heavily on moose calves during the first few weeks of life, and grizzly bears can easily kill adult moose. It is estimated that bears take up to 50% of new borne calves (in a good year) in Alberta.