Moose is one of the largest animals of Russia. The length of the body is – 79 – 118 inches, the length of the tail is 4.7-5.1 inches, height at the shoulder is about 93 inches, the weight is 1764-2205 pounds. She-moose is smaller than buck; its weight is about 1543 pounds. Its head is big, hook-nosed, with movable upper lip, that hang over the under lip. Ears are big and movable. Eyes are small. Hair is thick, long, dark brown. Legs are bright. Moose is a typical wild animal. It prefers thickets, overgrown burnt-out forests and cutting areas and also inundated overgrown with osier, near forest bogs and water bodies, which are abundant in aquatic- mire vegetation. Moose is a very agile and fast animal. It can pass the swampiest mires, spreading forelegs. It has a good ear and smell, but it has a weak vision.
In summer moose eats sappy mire vegetation, sprout of the trees and leaves of bushes. In winter they eat only branches – branches of osier, rowan, asp and birch. At this period they are usually keep together. In spring in thick bushes she-moose gives birth to one or two young mooses, their weight can be from 13 to 33 pounds. They grow up fast. On the second day of their life they stand firmly on theirs legs, and on the tenth day they follow their mother closely and eat greenery. The main enemy of the moose is a wolf. When moose defends itself against a wolf it hits with its leg. In such a way it can repel even a bear.
In autumn during grazing a moose treks long distances (3-4 miles in a day at average). Mobility of a moose decreases in winter when snow is deep and thin crust of ice snow is formed. The major part of the day moose lay on the snow masticating cud. An adult moose eats about 15-20 pounds of branches in a day in winter. It prefers shoots of osier, rowan tree, aspen and also conifers.
In early spring, when trees begin to secret blood and when bark easily comes off the trees, a moose strips it by catching it from below and then drawing it up.
Bark, grazed by an adult moose is usually at the height from 1 to 3 yards above grade. Tracks of small damage on the trunk are little by little skin over but seen for many years. Moose willingly eats bark of fallen trees.
In spring and in summer mooses are gazed on the shores of lakes and mires. They eat new greenery and flowers of osier, soldier’s buttons, sedge, and buck-bean. But it’s not enough for mooses. They go into water and get from the bottom fleshy rhizomes of candock, parrot’s-feather and other aquatic plants. In spring pastures sometimes you can notice small tracks of one or two calf near with the tracks of she-moose. In winter mooses cast antlers. New antlers grow during the summer. In August – September animals clean their antlers. Rut begins at the end of September or at the beginning of October. This period buck and she-moose keep together, in pair, but sometimes their youngs stay with them.
Moose is a clever and kind animal. It is easy to handle a moose and he can live with a man. Nowadays there are mooses farms in European part of Russia, where mooses are multiplied because of its tasty and healthy meat and milk. But there is one disadvantage in this work in comparison with breeding of cows: you have to store up tons of branches of trees for winter, and it hardly can be justified from economic and practical point of view.
From time immemorial mooses can be found in northern part of Kamchatka – in Penzhinsky district, where sparse larch forests grow. There were no mooses in central part of Kamchatka. About 35 years ago the migration of these animals turned out well. There are three necessary conditions for animal migration to the new place of habitat: favorable weather conditions, technical facilities and a group of enthusiasts. Up to 1972 some scientists dreamed about migration, among them the zoologist, the expert in hoofed mammals Vladimir Fil. He studied nutritive base, which mooses can eat in Ust-Kamcatsky and Milkovsky districts and he made sure that it did for mooses. Mooses could migrate in Kamchatka from Penzhinsky district by themselves, if it were not for Parapolsky Vale – treeless swampy lowland. It is possible to pass this territory only by sea or by air. Soon there were enough enthusiasts for transportation of mooses. Yurii Ponomarev is a Milkovsky expert in gamekeeping and Nevzorov is a hunter made cages for transportation. Many crewmen of MI-8 wanted to take part in this difficult, but interesting work. In 1976 in winter expedition set out to the north, in the valley of the Belaya river, where they calculated the population. The expedition had a helicopter MI-4 under the command of Vladimir Chistyakov. The work began and it was difficult. They chose young mooses at the age from 9 month to 2 years. During 10 minutes they had to immobilize the moose, carry it to the helicopter and plunge in a cage. During the first winter they could to transport only 2 mooses. Scientists transported them with a help of hanger bracket. It was very dangerous because the cage could break and animals could catch a cold. Then scientists made new cages of such size that 3 mooses could be placed into a helicopter MI-6. There were 2 helicopters under the command of L. Novickii and V. Samarsky. There were built 2 ships for transportation of mooses in the valley of river Kamchatka near Schapino. They transported from 4 to 10 mooses every spring. There were transported 50 mooses during 7 years. At first young pioneers from the local school were bringing foods for mooses. But then animals began to search for food themselves and they liked it. Sometime later the breed was born. Acclimatization finished successfully! It was a great migration, the most unique thing for all the world. There are not less than 1.5 thousand mooses in the valley of the Kamchatka River.