TRAITS AND HABITS OF THE MOOSE 8i 



him in his first charge he would not have renewed 

 it; few wild animals will return to a charge, faihng 

 in the first.'"^ 



Moose fight with others of their own kind only 

 in the rutting season. At this season those of the 

 fighting sex are equipped with antlers, and the 

 antlers are the weapons for attack and defence 

 in such contests. Against animals of other species 

 the moose deems his hoofs his most effective 

 weapons, but such battles are generally fought in 

 seasons when horns are lacking. Indeed, the moose 

 rarely has occasion to fight, since in most of his 

 range the wolf has been exterminated. 



The growth of the antlers of the bull moose, 

 and the brief season of mating, are physiologically 

 closely associated. With antlers fully grown, the 



^8 Andrew J. Stone in The Deer Family, p. 314. A writer in The Big 

 Game of North America (Chicago, 1890), page 25, tells how a few years 

 before a moose was attacked while swimming in Clear Water River in 

 Idaho by a party of rivermen in a bateau. The men used axes, cant- 

 hooks, and other implements of the woods as weapons of offense. The 

 writer tells us that the boat contained six men and three tons of cargo. 

 "The moose struck the boat with his antlers, and raised it clear out of 

 the water, turning it upside down so quickly that the men were all 

 frightened and stunned, and two of them were either killed or drowned." 

 We are told that it was a large moose. A moose that can lift a bateau 

 with six men and three tons of cargo by his antlers while swimming has 

 to be large. But the moose of Idaho are not noted for excessive size, 

 and this story, like that of the Rocky Mountain bull by the same 

 writer (see p. 64), may be dismissed as the work of one who was 

 careless with regard to facts. 



^9 See Chap, viii., on "Heads and Horns." 

 6 



