Moose

Book excerpt: Features 140 powerful photographs of this majestic animal. Moose features the biology and natural history of the northwood's largest land mammal. Illustrated with the exquisite photographs of famed wilderness photographer Mark Raycroft, this book celebrates this magnificent and elusive forest giant. Weighing up to 1,800 pounds, the moose is the largest living member of the deer family. It ranges across New England to Montana, northern Canada and Alaska, and inhabits Scandinavia and Russia as well. Of the seven subspecies of moose, four of them live in North America where 1 million moose live. They inhabit the northern deciduous and mixed coniferous forests in the east, the aspen parklands of the midwest, the vast boreal forests that span the continent, the northern taiga and up into the southern fringes of the tundra. Moose have been re-introduced to Wisconsin, Minnesota and New Hampshire, and were introduced to Newfoundland as a food source. The name moose is derived from the Algonquian native word mooswa, which means, animal that strips bark from trees, or twigeater and first appeared in the English language in the 1600s. Moose can run up to 35 miles an hour, swim effortlessly for long periods of time, dive as deep as 18 feet and stay submerged for as long as a minute. Their considerable weight and awesome antlers also make them a spectacle to behold. Despite their physical grandeur, moose face challenges from encroaching human activity and a warming climate. More southerly species are moving ever northward where the animals seek out the cooler climes that they need to thrive. Chapters include: Moose Ecology Moose Species Coast To Coast The Antler Cycle The Rut Moose Conservation and the Future Photographing Moose.