Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada

The Moose - Our Largest Herbivore

The moose is the largest living deer. It affects the growth of the forest in the park by selectively browsing only certain species of trees.
© Cape Breton Highlands National Park / H. MacLeod

The moose is the world's largest living deer, standing 1.7 to 1.8 metres at the shoulder. It is characterized by its large size, long face with overhanging muzzle, dewlap or 'bell' under the throat, long legs and short tail. The male moose, or bull, has large palmate antlers. The moose is usually dark brown to black with beige or gray lower legs. The moose is most active at night but can be seen any time of day. It eats aquatic plants in the summer and the bark, twigs and buds of woody plants in the winter.

The female, or cow, moose gives birth to 1 or 2 calves in May to June. A moose can live up to 20 years in the wild.

Distribution

Moose are circumpolar, living in the Boreal forest across Canada and the northern parts of the United States as well as other northern areas of the world.

Moose Change the Forest

In Cape Breton, moose were rare by 1900 and wiped out by 1924 due to excessive hunting and habitat destruction. Parks Canada decided to try to re-introduce moose to the park in the 1940s. To this end, 18 animals from Elk Island National Park were released in Cape Breton Highlands National Park during 1947 and 1948. It is likely that all the animals in Cape Breton now have descended from these original 18 animals.

In 1995, the moose population density in northern Cape Breton was estimated at approximately 5 moose per square kilometre! In the absence of the wolf, there is no natural control for the moose population within the park other than a brain worm introduced by white tailed deer and the occasional kill by a bear.

So many moose need a lot of food. Moose browse selectively, preferring aquatic plants in the summer and woody plants in the winter. Preferred winter food includes certain hardwoods, with balsam fir being eaten in particularly severe winters. In browsing so heavily on certain types of food but not others they can alter the development of the forested landscape, leading to overall changes in the ecosystem. The moose in Cape Breton Highlands National Park may be changing the composition of the Boreal forest.

Mainland Nova Scotia has a very small moose population, so why don't we move some of the Cape Breton moose to the mainland? The answer is that the Cape Breton moose, having descended from animals from Alberta, are a different subspecies from the mainland moose. Introducing Cape Breton moose to the mainland population would change the unique gene pool of the mainland moose. If wildlife managers decide to introduce some new moose to mainland Nova Scotia, they will probably use animals from New Brunswick or Newfoundland which are the same subspecies as the mainland Nova Scotia moose.

In 2000, Cape Breton Highlands National Park in cooperation with the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and the Eskasoni Fish and Wildlife Commission initiated a 5-year Moose Population Study to get detailed information on the Cape Breton moose herd. As well as determining population size and structure, this study is looking at home range size, seasonal movement and habitat use.