Elk animal. Moose lifestyle and habitat

The majestic animal elk belongs to the class of mammals. It is one of the varieties of the deer family. The planet is inhabited by almost one and a half million individuals.

Elk antlers are his pride

His distinctive feature from other types of deer, are its antlers, they are not like the others. Heavy, spade-shaped, sweeping horns resemble in their appearance an arable tool - a plow. Due to this, the moose got the name - elk.

In an adult male, the span of the horns reaches 180 cm, and their weight can be about 30 kg. Every year, from November to December, moose shed their antlers, so if, while walking in the forest, you accidentally stumble upon such an attribute, don’t be alarmed, the moose no longer needs these antlers; they will grow new ones. These can be taken as souvenirs.

The females have no horns.

The antlers serve as a means of protection for the moose, they use them to fend off predators, as well as in the fight against rivals.

Moose appearance

In addition to the peculiarity in the horns, the elk is the largest in the family. Its weight is over half a ton. The largest specimen was noted - a male, whose weight reached 655 kg. Elk moose are smaller than males.

He has a massive wide chest and back, the front part in the area of ​​the shoulder blades is higher, the neck is short. Large large head, wide elongated muzzle. Its upper lip is large and hangs slightly. There is a leathery outgrowth on the neck, it is also called "earring".

The elk has rather high and at the same time thin legs, and in order to drink water, the elk is forced to go deep into the water or bend down, kneeling. But thanks to such legs, the elk runs fast, speeds up to 56 km / h.

Food

Moose feed on young growth of trees and shrubs, as well as grass, in addition to this, they can eat mushrooms, mosses and lichens. In winter, they eat the bark and branches of trees.

Moose do not like heat, so they feed more often at night. During the day, it chooses swampy places for feeding, next to water or well-ventilated.

Mating period and pregnancy

Moose mating occurs in autumn, September - October. During this period, the moose shows strong aggression. Males fight each other, unfortunately, sometimes fatally.

Moose is in position for about 8 months. As a result, usually one calf is born, rarely, mostly in old females, two appear.

moose

The little calf has a red color. They are able to stand on their feet within a few minutes after birth.

Moose behave like all children. They drink mother's milk, which, by the way, is very fatty - up to 13% and high in protein. They frolic and always stay close to their mother, who will always protect her baby.

Babies are interesting and funny. Watching them is a real pleasure.

Moose moose with calves form groups of 3-4 animals. Sometimes males may join such groups.

Where do moose live?

Since moose do not like heat, they are common in the northern part. Occupy forest zones, sometimes forest-steppes and the outskirts of the steppes.

In winter, moose can migrate to places with the least snow cover. They move to another place if the snow cover reaches 70 cm. Moose are very patient, hardy and strong. In the spring they return and live settled in the place.

Images of an elk have many coats of arms of cities and regions. For some, it symbolizes natural resources, in others it shows strength and endurance. The image of an elk is found even on banknotes and stamps.

The weight of the forest giant - elk, can approach 800 kg, with a height of 1.5-2.3 meters.

Among the land giants, only the African elephant “grows” up to 3.5 meters and the elk one may well compete with it.

Such interesting name the animal received because of the shape of the horns, which resemble a peasant tillage tool - a plow.

The artiodactyl belongs to the deer family and is its most ancient representative. By appearance the elk differs from its counterparts: its body and neck are short, the withers are curved in the form of a hump. The head of the animal is hook-nosed, the upper lip hangs over the lower one. A soft hanging fold is formed under the neck, 25-40 cm long. The legs of the artiodactyl are quite strongly extended and in order to get to the water, he has to go deep into the water or kneel. If they say that the legs feed the wolf, then they save the elk. To get away from persecution, the mammal accelerates to 55 km / h. With a powerful blow of hooves, he is able to fight off a whole pack of wolves. The majestic head of the elk is crowned with two branches of horns, which change annually: in November-December, the animal sheds them, and by April new ones grow in it. The weight of such an ornament is 20-30 kg, the span is up to 1.8 m. Horns are worn only by males, they do not grow in females. Each individual has its own shape of the horn bone, it is almost impossible to meet two animals with the same horns. The formation of processes depends on various environmental conditions of the animal. Artiodactyls are excellent camouflage and the color of their skin matches the type of vegetation that prevails in their habitat.

Moose habitat

The weight of an elk can reach 800 kg.

The zone of “residence” of moose is forest and forest-steppe. Their total number on the planet is about one and a half million individuals. When choosing a place to live, it is very important for an animal to have a swampy area, forest rivers and lakes.

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This relief allows you to hide from the heat in summer time and foraging near water sources. AT winter period While artiodactyls migrate to an area with minimal snow cover, deep snow makes moose easy prey for predators. The main diet of artiodactyls is plant food. Due to their high growth, they easily pick off succulent young leaves from trees, eat branches of shrubs and grass, and feed on marsh vegetation. Closer to autumn, mushrooms and berries of lingonberries, blueberries and blueberries appear on the menu of elk. In summer, a portion of food eaten by a moose per day is 35 kg, in winter it is reduced to 10-15 kg. On average, per year, he absorbs about 7 tons of plant food, if the elk were carnivorous, then during this time, he would have eaten a whole African elephant!

The animal's favorite delicacy is mineral salt. On natural salt marshes, moose are the most frequent guests. AT winter time they can be found on asphalt roads licking salt, which is sprinkled on the canvas as an anti-icing coating.

An elk is a very cautious animal, thanks to the special structure of its eyes, without turning its head, it sees everything that happens behind it. The ears also serve as excellent locators, they rotate in any direction and another moose, the animal hears at a distance of up to three kilometers. Far-set nostrils help to clearly determine the location of objects in space. The nose is a very sensitive organ, the enemies of the elk are well aware of this feature and, when attacked, they try to grab the prey by the nose, in which case the elk cannot resist and becomes practically immobilized.

Moose offspring and domestication

Moose moose are very caring and fearless mothers. They protect their cub from the attack of wolves, bears, even if it poses a threat to them. own life. After the birth of the baby, mothers do not leave him for up to two days and lick him, because the calf is absolutely helpless and defenseless and cannot even rise to his feet. Moose calves feed on their mother's milk and follow her until they are one year old. When a moose cow is expecting a new offspring, she drives away the grown calf and it begins an independent life. Adult moose differ in weight: males weigh an average of 430 kg, females "only" 340 kg.

Despite the fact that the elk is a wild animal, it can be domesticated. In Russia, several elk farms have been created, animals are kept for milk and young antlers - antlers.

1. They accumulate a large number of biologically active substances that are used in the manufacture of medicines and cosmetics.
2. Mature horns of the elk are used to make crafts and souvenirs.

In nature, moose are excellent swimmers, in water they can reach speeds of up to 10 km / h, a good indicator for a four-legged animal, considering that a whale usually swims at the same speed. Elklings can dive to a depth of 6 meters and hold their breath underwater for up to 30 seconds.

How much an elk weighs depends on where it lives. Animals - whose habitat is the western part of Russia, are much larger and heavier than their counterparts, registered in the eastern part of the country. The number of individuals per square kilometer is approximately the same. Regardless of where moose live, the safety of the population of these cautious and interesting animals depends on the person.

The elk, the description of which can be found in almost all reference books for animal lovers, is a large artiodactyl mammal belonging to the elk genus, deer family.

Experts believe that its name comes from the Old Slavonic word "ols", which refers to the red hair covering the body of newborn elk calves. Another common name for an elk in Russia since ancient times is elk. Presumably, it arose due to the similarity of its horns with a plow.

Where does the elk live?

The description of the moose must begin with its range. These artiodactyls are widespread in the Northern Hemisphere. By the middle of the 19th century, a large population of elk was practically destroyed in Europe, with the exception of Russia. Thanks to conservation measures taken at the beginning of the 20th century, these artiodactyls repopulated Northern and Eastern Europe.

Today, these large animals live in the Scandinavian countries (Norway, Finland), in Belarus, in the north of Ukraine, in Hungary and Poland, the Baltic countries (Estonia and Latvia), the Czech Republic. The largest population is in Russia: from Kola Peninsula to the southern steppes. AT North America moose settled in Canada, Alaska, and also in the northeastern United States.

Reading the description of the moose in various sources, we can conclude that these animals settle in mixed and coniferous forests with swamps, quiet streams and rivers. In the forest-tundra, aspen and birch forests are preferred. The elk are also distributed along the banks and rivers - in the floodplain thickets. In mountain forests they settle in valleys and on gentle slopes.

What does a moose look like? Photo and description

Elk is largest representative of his family. The height of the animal at the withers is from 1.70 to 2.35 meters, the body length is 3 meters. The weight of an adult female is 300 kg, and the male is more than six hundred. In appearance, these animals seem awkward: tall torso. Animals have powerful shoulders and chest. but not thin, muscular with narrow and long hooves. The tail is short but well marked.

The head is large and heavy, up to 500 mm long, hook-nosed. It has large and mobile ears. A slightly swollen upper lip noticeably hangs over the lower one, and under the throat you can see a soft leathery outgrowth - an “earring”, the length of which can reach 40 cm.

coat

Without the characteristic of wool, which consists of long coarse hairs and a softer undercoat, even short description animal. The elk has a fairly long coat. In winter, it grows up to ten centimeters in length. On the neck and withers it is even longer and resembles a mane, up to twenty centimeters long. Sometimes it even seems that the animal has a hump.

The soft hair that covers the head grows even on the lips. Only between the nostrils on the upper lip can you see a tiny bare area.

Color

The hair of the elk is colored black or brownish-black in the upper part of the body. It smoothly turns into a brown tint at the bottom. Below the limbs are whitish. In summer, the color of moose darkens.

Horns

Probably everyone who read the description of the moose in reference literature, know that elk have the largest horns among all mammals. Their span reaches 180 cm and weight is about 20 kg. The horn consists of a wide and short trunk and a flat, slightly concave shovel, surrounded by eighteen processes. Animals different ages the length of the processes, their length, the size of the shovel itself are different. The older the elk, the more powerful its horns, the wider the shovel, and the processes are shorter.

A year after birth, moose calves grow small horns. At first they are very soft, covered with delicate skin and silky fur. The horns are permeated with blood vessels, so in a young animal they hurt when bitten by insects and bleed when injured. After another two months, the horns harden, their blood supply stops. Elk antlers (antlers) after five years become large and heavy: the shovel expands, and the processes become shorter.

Lifestyle

The description of the moose gives grounds to assert that these animals prefer sedentary and move around a little. In search of food, they make small transitions, but stay in one area for a long time. In summer, the area where moose live and feed is much wider than in winter.

Elk leave snow-covered areas. Moose cows with calves are the first to leave their homes, followed by males, as well as females without offspring. In the reverse order, the animals return to their usual habitats. Moose are kept, as a rule, in small groups or singly. Only in winter they gather in herds in places richer in food. Such places where many individuals accumulate are called a camp in our country, and a yard in Canada. With the advent of spring, moose disperse again.

Is it listed in the Red Book?

We have presented you with a brief description of the moose. The Red Book, fortunately, has not yet replenished with this animal. But since its numbers are still declining, these animals should be protected from poachers. However, the elk is included in the regional Red Books of some regions and republics, where, due to various factors, its numbers are quite low. For example, elk is included in the Red Book of the Omsk region.

- most large view game. Height at the shoulders 240 cm, weight 570 kg (record 655 kg). The male carries horns more than one and a half meters in scope and weighing up to 20 kg. By autumn, the baby elk, Born in the summer, reaches a weight of a centner.

The largest animals inhabit Eastern Siberia. In the European part of the USSR, moose of medium size live, the south of the Far East is inhabited by even smaller ones, although average weight bulls of these moose are more than 200 kg, and the maximum is 400 kg. Far Eastern moose are distinguished by the absence of a "shovel" of flat expansion on the horns. The span of their horns is no more than a meter, and the weight is only 5 - 6 kg. The history of the distribution of the moose is amazing: the area of ​​\u200b\u200bhabitat, as it were, “breathes”, then the borders are rapidly (of course, on the scale of history) leaving - the south to the north, the north to the south, and the range of the animal narrows sharply; then also quickly the boundaries of the habitat of the species are expanding, and again there are a lot of moose.

To explain the fluctuations in the number of moose, one usually speaks of increased persecution by humans. But moose became less and where no one pursued them. There are absolutely correct indications that there are more moose after intensive deforestation, when animals receive a lot of fresh food from growing young. But there were cases in the history of the species when there were more clearings, and fewer moose. The answer lies in the fact that fluctuations in the number of moose are influenced not by any one factor, but by many, and above all purely natural - climatic, ecological and so-called population, that is, the mechanisms of internal regulation contained in the animals themselves. Of the climatic factors, snow depth and air temperature are important.

On all these mechanisms, of course, the direct influence of a person falls under heavy pressure - a change in the environment of the life of an animal, hunting, just anxiety, etc.

Now moose occupy the most extensive areas on which they have ever lived, but total strength animals begin to dwindle. It was the highest in the late 1950s and 1960s and approached 500,000 heads, and according to some sources, even 800,000. In the 1970s, it hardly exceeded 400,000 by much.

Moose live everywhere - from the tundra to the steppes and even semi-deserts, but, of course, moose do not live permanently either in the treeless tundra, or in the monotonous mountain taiga, or in the bare steppe and semi-desert; they can only come here for a while. They prefer river valleys, swampy areas, forest islands among fields, forested ravines.

In summer, moose live scattered, in winter they gather in groups, almost constantly feeding in the same places - stalls. At this time, especially in the spring, when the snow is deep, moose cover only a few hundred meters per day. But autumn transitions reach 5 - 6 km, and single males in search of females are able to travel several tens of kilometers.

The location of the stalls depends on the feeding places. AT Central Russia these are mainly young pine forests, in the north - burned areas and clearings, in Siberia - thickets of willows or shrub birches along the banks of rivers, on Far East- rare coniferous forests with abundant leafy undergrowth.

The plant food of the moose is very diverse. It eats several hundred species of plants - woody and herbaceous, almost exclusively woody in winter, and both in summer. Moose loves succulent marsh plants very much. He also eats mushrooms, sometimes with a lack of food - lichens,

Eating 10 or more kilograms of branches and needles, moose in some places severely damage forests. They pose a particularly great threat to forest plantations, to coniferous crops. This predetermines the need for constant regulation of the population density of moose during the hunting process.

Heat and midges make moose nocturnal animals, during the day driving animals to bald mountains, sparse areas and clearings, where the wind blows, to lakes and swamps, where you can hide up to your neck in water, or, conversely, to dense coniferous young growths that provide little protection from insect attacks. . Moose are excellent swimmers and can dive. To do 2 - 3 km for an elk is a mere trifle. Seen them swim across Rybinsk reservoir- 20 km by water. Moose are very fond of visiting salt licks. Sometimes gourmet comes to them 7 - 8 times in one night.

In winter, especially in severe frosts, moose feed during the day, taking breaks from time to time to rest. At night, they almost all the time remain on the bed. In very severe frosts, animals almost do not get up at all.