The largest deer living a solitary life browsing in northern forests. A fast runner and good swimmer. The males have very large palmate antlers.

Subspecies
Six subspecies.

Life span
Up to 27 years.

Statistics
168-230cm at the shoulder (males are 25 per cent bigger than females).

Physical description
The largest deer, moose have humped shoulders and a brown coat (darker in the summer). The muzzle is drooping and they have a 'bell' hanging from the throat. Males have large palmate antlers (occasionally reaching up to 2m across).

Distribution
Northern Europe, Eastern Siberia, Mongolia, Manchuria, Alaska, Canada and North Eastern USA. They have been introduced to New Zealand.

Habitat
Forested areas with snow cover in winter, and preferably on swampy ground.

Diet
Twigs, water plants (summer) and conifer branches (winter).

Behaviour
Moose are solitary browsers and are active throughout the day, although mainly at dawn and dusk. They are fast runners and strong swimmers, and some populations (particularly in Europe) migrate.

Reproduction
During the breeding season in September and October, females call to males and emit a powerful scent. They congregate, and males compete. Males also splash urine-soaked mud onto their bells, and this scent is very attractive to the females. Gestation lasts 8-9 months, and a single fawn or twins is born in the spring or early summer. The fawns lack the spotted coats of most young deer. They can follow their mother after about three weeks and are weaned at five months, although they have a close bond with their mother for at least a year. Sexual maturity is reached at about two.

Conservation status
Not currently threatened, despite some hunting. Some have been domesticated for milk and meat.

Voice
A deep call.

Records
The largest species of deer.

History
The first artiodactyls (also called the 'even-toed ungulates') were present in the Eocene forests. The deer are probably descended from small animals like the chevrotains, which browse and eat fallen fruit in forests. Like the chevrotains, deer use fermentation in their gut to digest plant material more efficiently - called rumination. As the forests began to open up in the Oligocene, ancestors of deer grew larger and browsed on the vegetation or grazed the new grass. They probably also formed herds for safety against predators. In the Miocene, the first horned deer appeared, with the males having horns to fight rather than using their canine teeth (as the musk deer and a few others still do).