Moose (Alces alces)

County List:

Rule:

Forested Landscapes

Habitat Requirements may be distributed across the NEIGHBORHOOD

      (Aspen (Regen or Sap))
      or (White Birch (Regen or Sap))
      or (Northern Hardwoods (Regen or Sap or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
   neighboring:
      (Spruce/Fir (Regen or Sap or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Hemlock (Regen or Sap or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Mixed Upland Conifer (Regen or Sap or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Mixed Northern Hardwoods (Regen or Sap or Sm Saw or Lg Saw or Uneven))
      or (Mixed Lowland Conifer (Any Size Class))
   neighboring:
      (Lake or Pond or River)
   adjacent to:
      Marsh1

Habitat List:

view size class definitions

Literature:

It is a resident of the boreal forests, particularly early successional stages dominated by shrubby growth and immature trees. Especially in summer, it frequents such moist habitats as cedar swamps, marshes, and alder-willow thickets bordering waterways.

A moose rarely grazes on grass. In late spring, it feeds on tender young leaves ripped from trees, such as aspen, maple, and birch, as well as shrubby willows, alders, and dogwoods. By summer it shifts its attention to lakes and rivers, where it spends hours uprooting plant after plant. It is fond of water lilies but also eats rushes, arrowheads, horsetails, and aquatic sedges. The winter diet is mostly twigs and buds.

Habitat: Second-growth boreal forests interspersed with semi-open areas and swamps or lakes that offer cover and aquatic plants for food. Climax stands of balsam fir, white birch, and aspen seral stands are preferred habitat. Summers are spent near water; winters in drier mixed hardwood-conifer forests.

Special Habitat Requirements: Wetlands preferred in summer for relief from mosquitoes and flies and for aquatic plant food items.

Habitat Preferences: The moose is distributed in North America in close association with northern boreal forests. Park-like stands of coniferous trees with little deciduous undergrowth may be used occasionally as winter retreats but they lack the total environmental quality necessary for year-around moose survival. The moose benefits most from early successional stages of evergreen forests. Most field observers believe that these early seral stages of shrubby growth and sapling stands have historically been best produced and maintained by unrestricted and natural fires and by present-day timber cutting. These rather unstable habitats may also be improved by the spruce budworm, which, despite its destruction of commercial timber, defoliates and opens closed overhead canopies of balsam fir and white spruce. Ideally, mixed young forest growth has a mosaic pattern providing abundant edge between woody cover and herbaceous plant openings. Swamps, lakeshores, adjacent to subclimax woody vegetation, and forest openings attract moose in summer. The diverse pattern of well-watered evergreen-deciduous second growth in much of the Upper Peninsula and northern parts of Lower Peninsula appear of sufficient quality to provide for sustained populations of moose.

Associates: In Michigan, moose and white-tailed deer occupy adjacent areas chiefly in the eastern part of the Upper Peninsula. Based on relationships observed in Minnesota and Ontario, the two cervids probably use similar environments primarily in the warm months, are equally attracted to burned areas, and have a major dietary overlap for browse in autumn. However, moose eat larger-diameter twigs. Moose also prefer balsam fir and reject white cedar, while deer thrive on white cedar and take balsam fir only as a last resort, the white-tailed deer seem more attracted to coniferous habitats; moose to deciduous areas. Kearney and Gilbert found that distributions of these two species appeared more influenced by habitat characteristics than by habitat types; moose distribution was more related to food availability; white-tailed deer distribution, to shelter availability. In winter, the moose, unlike the white-tailed deer, negotiates deep snow easily and remains highly mobile.