18 KAISING DEER IN THE UNITED STATES. 



THE MOOSE. 



The largest living animal of the deer family is the moose, repre- 

 sented in America by a widely distributed species (Alces americana). 

 The Alaskan moose, on account of its great size, has been described 

 as a separate species (Alces gig as). The European elk (A Ices 

 macKlis) differs but slightly from the common moose of North 

 America. 



The moose is still found in some of the wooded parts of Canada, 

 from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to Manitoba, its range extend- 

 ing into the United States in northern Maine, Michigan, and Minne- 

 sota. In the Eocky Mountain region it ranges from northwestern 

 Wyoming northwestward into Alaska. It is still fairly abundant 

 in parts of Alaska and in British Columbia. Under a careful system 

 of protection moose have slowly increased in numbers in Maine. A 

 promising attempt has been made to reintroduce them into the Adi- 

 rondacks, where they were exterminated nearly fifty years ago. 



Perhaps no other American deer is naturally so well adapted to 

 domestication as the moose. Professor Baird relates that a pair of 

 the animals were kept by a man living near Houlton, Me. These 

 had been trained to draw a sleigh, " which they did with great steadi- 

 ness and swiftness, subject, however, to the inconvenience that, when 

 they once took it into their heads to cool themselves in a neighboring 

 river or lake, no effort could prevent them." a Audubon relates 

 another instance of a moose's being trained to draw a sleigh. We are 

 informed by a number of writers that the European species was in 

 former times fully domesticated in northern Scandinavia and, like the 

 reindeer, was used to carry couriers from place to place. They were 

 swifter than reindeer and have been known to draw a sleigh 234 miles 

 in a day. It is said that this use of elk was finally forbidden under 

 heavy penalties on account of their having been employed to facili- 

 tate the escape of prisoners or suspected criminals, and the domestica- 

 tion of the animals was consequently abandoned. 



Dr. W. T. Hornaday says of the moose that in captivity "it is 

 docile; not foolishly nervous like most deer, but steady, confiding, 

 and affectionate. Moose are easily handled and trained to drive in 

 harness, and in contact with man manifest more common sense than 

 any other species of deer with which I am acquainted." & 



In spite of this natural tendency to tameness, the efforts that have 

 been made to keep moose in confinement have nearly all failed. A 

 pair were kept in the Cincinnati Zoological Garden for about five 

 years, but this experience is exceptional. Dr. Hornaday expresses 



a Report U. S. Com. Patents (Agriculture) for 1851, p. 115, 1852. 

 6 The American Natural History, p. 141, 1904. 



