MAMMALS OF UTAH 11 



in Salt Lake City for prosecution ; but it was found that 

 Utah had no law on the killing of moose. The head was 

 mounted by Mr. F. A. Wrathall of Salt Lake City, who in- 

 forms me that it was a three-year-old male with very small 

 horns and it had been shot with a shotgun. The head was 

 finally sold through the Mehesy Company. As there is 

 absolutely no doubt about the record, it marks probably the 

 extreme southwestern limit for this species. 



Habits — Unlike most animals the moose lives winter and 

 summer in the same locality — sometimes in a swamp only 

 three miles wide and ten miles long, or, again in a strip of 

 mountainside. The winter yard may cover less than fifty 

 acres; however, the moose is probably the widest ranger 

 of the non-migratory ruminants. 



The antlers, which are shed each year, are not fully pal- 

 mated until the third set appears; but, thereafter, unlike 

 those of the elk, they show little indication of the age of 

 their possessor. 



Both cows and bulls have the "bell," which is merely a 

 long dewlap of skin, round, flat, or forked, hanging down 

 eight or ten inches from the neck or the jaw. An experi- 

 enced woodsman can readily detect the presence of moose 

 by their "fumet" or dung bells, their sharp cow-like tracks, 

 their trails deliberately taken across bogs, their wallows, 

 their horn scrapings, and their nippings of twigs at great 

 heights. Frequently they chisel the bark of trees at a 

 height of from seven to ten feet, though they never com- 

 pletely girdle a tree. 



Even after a bull moose has dropped his horns his 

 forefeet are sufficiently dangerous bayonets to keep off a 

 wolf or a bear. When the snow becomes three or four feet 

 deep, the family makes regular trails from tree to tree ; and 

 if frightened away or compelled by hunger to seek other 

 fields, they march in single file, parents in the lead. Jays 

 flutter about their backs all winter, eating parasites from 

 their backs and in turn warning their hosts of danger. 



In the spring the bulls meander off alone to grow their 

 horns and the cows retreat to have their calves, one each 

 the first time, afterwards two or even three. Deer hide 

 their fawns for weeks, but the moose calf follows its 

 mother about when only three or four days old. 



In the summer the families reassemble and become 

 semi-aquatic, swimming constantly in the ponds. The bull's 

 antlers begin to peel in July and by September they are 

 ready for the annual battles. 



The moose is the only deer that is strictly monogamous. 

 So faithful is he in fact that he will not answer to a calling 



