Moose Calves Are Somewhat of a Challenge

 

Every year, when moose calves arrive at the Sanctuary, we know we are being faced with a real challenge. Even newborn calves are a good size, with huge noses, short bodies that are somehow out of proportion to the long, long wobbly legs and big, flat hoofs.

 

One cannot help but wonder if a mother moose could possibly consider her calf to be beautiful. Even so, the calf is infinitely appealing but difficult to raise. It must be fed a certain formula (never cow’s milk), from a huge bottle, every few hours, all day and all night, tended by only one person – here, that’s our manager, Tony. Any sort of stress must, at all costs, be avoided.

 

Every year we have at least one grown calf to be released. Releasing is almost as great a challenge as the raising. Any moose we have cared for has, we believe, a right to live a good, long life, wild in the bush. We do not raise them to be shot by some he-man hunter. Where, if all Ontario, is a moose safe? No where.

 

This year, when we were looking for a place to release a rather handsome moose named 103, after a Muskoka radio station called the Moose, we actually did find a place of relative safety. A gentleman who, a few years ago, had learned about the work we do with animals, had given us a groundhog – long since raised and set free. This summer the man phoned and invited us to release some creatures at his place – at the end of a very long long road,well beyond human contact, l000 acres of almost virgin timber, acres of wetland – and backing on miles if inaccessible wilderness. And, actually, it wasn’t very far from where the moose had originated.

 

Moving a moose is another challenge. First, it must be tranquillized. This is generally Dr. Ian White’s job, and he does it very well. Asleep, the moose has to be moved on a stretched (103 weighed about 1000 pounds) carried to a horse trailer, laid on the deep straw inside and then taken, as fast as may be, to the release area.

 

We can never predict whether, should be come out of the sleep too soon, he will behave himself – or panic. And a panicky bull moose in a horse trailer could be a – challenge.

 

And 103 woke up.

 

You may be familiar with the steep hill down the main street of Bracebridge. You may even remember that, in the fall, considerable road construction was taking place there. Traffic was being channeled through some twisty turny one-way lanes down the hill – to the stop lights at the bottom. The day we moved the moose the traffic was heavy.

 

There he was, standing up, his nose high over the back gate – a gate just a little too high for him to actually see anything. Somehow he may have known that two police cruisers were parked by the lights. He did not panic.

 

For the rest of the trip he stood, sniffing at the passing world. When, finally, the journey ended, away back on a trail in that wonderful woods, Tony opened the trailer door. For a moment the moose stood, looking around. Then, approving, and with great dignity, he stepped out. He stood a moment, then saw some long, green grass and he moved away and began to graze.

He is still doing well in the wild.