TRAITS AND HABITS OF THE MOOSE 83 



to hear. There is no reason whatever to suppose 

 that the same pair will mate together for successive 

 seasons. 



Contests between bulls in the mating season 

 are of frequent occurrence, and the skins of old 

 bulls often show the scars of many such battles.^^ 

 If a cow is a spectator of a contest between two 

 bulls which have come in response to her call, 

 she is an indifferent one. Indeed, a cow has been 

 known to accept the attentions of a crotch-horn 

 bull while two older bulls were engaged in a 

 frenzied combat to determine which should enjoy 

 her companionship. Concerning the wallow, a 

 small shallow excavation in the ground which is 

 frequently observed in moose territory, opinions 

 are at variance. Its chief characteristic is an evil 

 odor caused by the urine which the moose deposit 

 there. It is associated with the period of the rut, 

 but is not, as some assume, a trysting place of the 

 sexes. It is made by the male, but apparently 

 not for the purpose of attracting the female. 



A cow moose usually has one or two calves at a 

 time — very rarely three. Most species of deer 

 are less prolific. In the southern portion of the 



The effects of such a fight are described by Thomas Martindale in 

 Hunting in the Upper Yukon (Philadelphia, 1913), pp. 161-165. 



