Picture of the month - June 2013

Moose Child

Flag English Moose Child


Experts of my page know that the moose in Wildpark Hundshaupten are my closest connection to the community of Alces alces. The moose cow "Lotta" and the bull moose "Lars" place an awesome gift in my hands on a yearly base - moose offspring!

Thanks to Karola, the Wildpark head and biologist, I get notice of this great event rather soon after Lotta has given birth to one or two moose calves. This year it was just a single calf - frisky and healthy - although the image suggests the opposite (well, moose are in general rather calm and peaceful animals).

Lars, bull moose and father - as usually in the first weeks after the calf saw the light of day -has to stay apart of the mother-and-calf union. Neglecting this natural rule can easily cause an attack of the outmost protective mother. I was subjected to such an attack a few years ago when getting too close with my camera - luckily a fence between moose cow and me prevented me from gaining better insight into the experiences Lars made several times.

While spring is a catastrophy this year due to unacceptably low temperatures and ways too much rain for my understanding, the moose offspring is like a ray of sunlight enlightening the clowdy and grey sky.

I hope for many more years to come with moose calves to visit in the nearby wildpark. And I hope for lots of moose offspring in and outside of the park, especially as some alarming statistics from USA tell of decreasing moose populations in some areas. There is no specific root cause found yet. Theories vary from an abundance of deer diminishing the moose population or an increase of predators to a spreading of a mad-cow-disease variant to moose. Let's keep fingers crossed for the king of the forest ...

 

Moose Child

OFFSPRING is awesome, SPRING would be,
your Mr. Mooseman !