Editing Moose (section)

===Diet===
[[File:Moose mate.ogg|thumb|Moose mate]]
The moose is a [[Browsing (herbivory)|browsing herbivore]] and is capable of consuming many types of plant or fruit. The average adult moose needs to consume {{convert|23000|kcal|MJ|abbr=off|order=flip|sp=us}} per day to maintain its body weight.<ref>{{cite report |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uj8lAQAAMAAJ&dq=moose+calories+needed&pg=PA96 |publisher=United States Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service |title=Report of the Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit Calendar Year 1971 |date=1972 |location=Washington, D. C. |access-date=22 January 2024 |archive-date=16 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230716062700/https://books.google.com/books?id=Uj8lAQAAMAAJ&dq=moose+calories+needed&pg=PA96 |url-status=live }}</ref> Much of a moose's energy is derived from terrestrial vegetation, mainly consisting of [[forb]]s and other non-grasses, and fresh shoots from trees such as [[willow]] and [[birch]]. As these terrestrial plants are rather low in [[sodium]], as much as half of its diet usually consists of aquatic plants, including [[Nymphaeaceae|lilies]] and [[Elodea|pondweed]],<ref>[http://www.mooseworld.com/diet.htm Moose diet] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101125060007/http://mooseworld.com/diet.htm |date=November 25, 2010 }} Mooseworld. Retrieved on January 9, 2011.</ref> which while lower in energy content, provide the moose with its sodium requirements.<ref name="Richard F Page 84-85">{{cite book |title=Biology by numbers: an encouragement to quantitative thinking |first=Richard F. |last=Burton |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1998 |pages=84–85}}</ref> In winter, moose are often drawn to roadways, to lick salt that is used as a snow and ice melter.<ref>{{cite book |title=Journey to New England |first1=Patricia |last1=Harris |first2=David |last2=Lyon |publisher=Patricia Harris-David Lyon |date=1999 |page=398}}</ref> A typical moose, weighing {{convert|360|kg|0|abbr=on|sp=us}}, can eat up to {{convert|32|kg|0|abbr=on|sp=us}} of food per day.<ref name="Richard F Page 84-85"/>

Moose lack upper front [[teeth]], but have eight sharp incisors on the lower jaw. They also have a tough tongue, lips and gums, which aid in the eating of woody vegetation. Moose have six pairs of large, flat molars and, ahead of those, six pairs of premolars, to grind up their food. A moose's upper lip is very sensitive, to help distinguish between fresh shoots and harder twigs, and is [[prehensile]], for grasping their food. In the summer, moose may use this prehensile lip for grabbing branches and pulling, stripping the entire branch of leaves in a single mouthful, or for pulling [[forbs]], like [[dandelion]]s, or aquatic plants up by the base, roots and all.<ref name=Rodgers2001>{{citation|title=Moose|first=Art|last=Rodgers|publisher=Voyager Press|year=2001|page=[https://archive.org/details/moose0000rodg/page/34 34]|isbn=978-0-89658-521-8|url=https://archive.org/details/moose0000rodg/page/34}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Seasons of the Moose |first1=Jennie |last1=Promack |first2=Thomas J. |last2=Sanker |publisher=Gibbs Smith |date=1992 |page=21}}</ref> A moose's diet often depends on its location, but they seem to prefer the new growths from [[deciduous tree]]s with a high sugar content, such as white birch, [[Populus tremuloides|trembling aspen]] and [[striped maple]], among many others.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mooseworld.com/diet.htm |title=Moose diet |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101125060007/http://mooseworld.com/diet.htm |archive-date=November 25, 2010 |website=Mooseworld |access-date=January 9, 2011}}</ref> To reach high branches, a moose may bend small saplings down, using its prehensile lip, mouth or body. For larger trees a moose may stand erect and walk upright on its hind legs, allowing it to reach branches up to {{convert|4.26|m|ftin|sp=us}} or higher above the ground.<ref>{{cite book |title=North American big-game animals |first=Byron |last=Dalrymple |publisher=Stoeger Publishing |date=1983 |page=84}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Land and Wildlife of North America |first=Peter |last=Farb |publisher=California State department of Education |date=1966 |page=177}}</ref> Moose may consume [[ferns]] from time to time.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Timmermann |first1=H. R. |last2=McNicol |first2=J. G. |date=June 1988 |title=Moose Habitat Needs |url=https://pubs.cif-ifc.org/doi/10.5558/tfc64238-3 |journal=The Forestry Chronicle |volume=64 |issue=3 |pages=238–245 |doi=10.5558/tfc64238-3 |issn=0015-7546}}</ref>

Moose are excellent swimmers and are known to wade into water to eat aquatic plants. This trait serves a second purpose in cooling down the moose on summer days and ridding itself of [[Black fly|black flies]]. Moose are thus attracted to marshes and river banks during warmer months as both provide suitable vegetation to eat and water to wet themselves in. Moose have been known to dive over {{convert|18|ft|m|order=flip}} to reach plants on lake bottoms,<ref name="Peterson">{{cite book |last1=Peterson |first1=Randolph L. |title=North American Moose |date=1955 |publisher=University of Toronto |location=Toronto |isbn=0-8020-7021-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SB_xAAAAMAAJ |quote=Water is definitely one of the preferred elements in the habitat of moose. When feeding on submerged aquatic vegetation they occasionally dive for plants in water over 18 feet deep. |access-date=August 28, 2020 |archive-date=March 28, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230328013345/https://books.google.com/books?id=SB_xAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> and the complex snout may assist the moose in this type of feeding. Moose are the only deer that are capable of feeding underwater.<ref name="World Page 237">{{cite book |title=Deer of the World: Their Evolution, Behaviour, and Ecology |first=Valerius |last=Geist |publisher=Stackpole Books |date=1998 |page=237}}</ref> As an adaptation for feeding on plants underwater, the nose is equipped with fatty pads and muscles that close the nostrils when exposed to water pressure, preventing water from entering the nose.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/science/2004-05-05-moose-nose_x.htm|title=Researchers take a look at the moose's enigmatic nose|work=USA Today|last=Sharp |first=David |agency=Associated Press |access-date=May 18, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140518105004/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/science/2004-05-05-moose-nose_x.htm|archive-date=May 18, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> Other species can pluck plants from the water too, but these need to raise their heads in order to swallow.

{{multiple image|image1=Moose exclosure.jpg|image2=Moose exclosure sign.jpg|footer=This fenced-in area is part of a long-term research project to examine the effects of moose browsing on plant biodiversity.}}
Moose are not [[grazing]] animals but [[browsing (herbivory)|browsers]] (concentrate selectors), and their diet varies on a continuum between soft-leaf browsing and browsing of lignified plant matter.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Berlioz |first1=Emilie |last2=Leduc |first2=Charlotte |last3=Hofman-Kamińska |first3=Emilia |last4=Bignon-Lau |first4=Olivier |last5=Kowalczyk |first5=Rafał |last6=Merceron |first6=Gildas |date=15 January 2022 |title=Dental microwear foraging ecology of a large browsing ruminant in Northern Hemisphere: The European moose (Alces alces) |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018221005393 |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |language=en |volume=586 |pages=110754 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2021.110754 |bibcode=2022PPP...58610754B |access-date=7 April 2025 |via=Elsevier Science Direct}}</ref> Like [[giraffe]]s, moose carefully select foods with less fiber and more concentrations of nutrients. Thus, the moose's digestive system has evolved to accommodate this relatively low-fiber diet. Unlike most hooved, domesticated animals ([[ruminant]]s), moose cannot digest [[hay]], and feeding it to a moose can be fatal.<ref>{{cite book |title=Comparative Animal Nutrition and Metabolism |first1=Peter R. |last1=Cheeke |first2=Ellen Sue |last2=Dierenfeld |publisher=CABI |date=2010 |page=24}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://m.juneauempire.com/stories/122603/sta_hay.shtml#.VroopVJvy-4|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301221605/http://m.juneauempire.com/stories/122603/sta_hay.shtml#.VroopVJvy-4|archive-date=March 1, 2016|title=Deadly diet of hay can bring down a moose |via=Juneau Empire|work=Fairbanks Daily News-Miner|first=Tim|last=Mowry|date=December 26, 2003}}</ref> The moose's varied and complex diet is typically expensive for humans to provide, and free-range moose require a lot of forested hectarage for sustainable survival, which is one of the main reasons moose have never been widely domesticated.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

<gallery heights="160px" mode="packed">
File:Alces alces bark stripping.jpg|left|[[Bark (botany)|Bark]] stripping
File:Bull moose close up feeding on fireweed.JPG|Bull moose eating a [[fireweed]] plant
File:Moose 983 LAB.jpg|Bull moose browses a [[beaver]] pond
</gallery>