Crowning gory

Natural History, Sept, 2002 by Judy Rice

Come September, a bull moose has more than a few clues that autumn and its imperatives are near. Days are shorter, air cooler, antlers itchier. After casting off the old set in winter, bulls sprout new antlers, channeling minerals--mostly calcium and phosphorus--and other nutrients to the growing headgear, which is fed by a rich network of blood vessels. By summer the males are "in velvet," their hardening antlers sheathed in sensitive, living tissue. The bull shown here, a resident of Sarek National Park in northern Sweden, demonstrates the next stage: shedding.

A sure sign that the autumnal rutting season has begun are skeins of velvet strewn on the ground and hanging from vegetation and from the moose themselves. Photographer Staffan Widstrand, who watched this animal at close range, says that, unlike most moose in Sweden, "the bull and a handful of others in this protected park are not the least shy of humans," being accustomed only to hikers, not hunters. To loosen the veined velvet, the bull first thrashed its head around in stands of birch trees and Salix bushes (inset), but according to Widstrand, the whole shedding process took about six hours. "Usually it is done at night," he added, "but this bull was kind enough to do it by day. The antlers are still very red, but after a day or two they will be a pale yellow-brown." Then they can serve to intimidate or fight with other bulls and to impress cows ready to mate.

So is this moose actually munching on the tatters? "Yes," says Widstrand, "it ate some of the velvet. I don't know whether it tasted good, bad nutritional value, or was just a way to get it out of his eyes."