CALLING THE MOOSE 



121 



The best bulls are likely to "come in" to the call 

 in the first week or two of the season. After they 

 have mated, the smaller specimens, and defeated 

 suitors for female favors, will make bold to respond 

 when they hear the cows' melodious confession of 

 loneliness. 



With regard to the conditions surrounding the 

 practice of calling there has been some conflict of 

 opinion. Stone, in The Deer Family,'- ridicules 

 the claim that a bull moose will respond to a 

 hunter's call in the belief that the sound is the 

 call of a cow. But Mr. Stone's experience with 

 the moose has been in the Northwest, where 

 calling is almost unknown. Other writers de- 

 scribe the *'loud bellow of the bull" as he rushes 

 through the woods in the rutting season, seeking 

 female companionship, assuming that it is the 

 bull which calls. These writers either lack experi- 

 ence in the moose country, or have gained their 

 experience on the Pacific side of the continent, 

 where, as stated, calling is rarely practiced. 



The statement that moose in Alaska and western 

 Canada will not respond to a call is untrue. Wil- 

 fred H. Osgood of the United States Biological 

 Survey relates how two bulls responded to a call 

 sounded by Carl Rungius, the well-known sports- 



* Page 310. 



