Editing Moose (section)

===Domestication===
[[File:Vyborg ElkMonument 006 9848c.jpg|thumb|Sculpture by the Finnish Jussi Mäntynen from 1923. The statue was preserved intact from the [[Second World War]] and is located in [[Vyborg]]]]
Domestication of moose was investigated in the [[Soviet Union]] before [[World War II]]. Early experiments were inconclusive, but with the creation of a moose farm at [[Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve]] in 1949, a small-scale moose domestication program was started, involving attempts at [[selective breeding]] of animals on the basis of their behavioural characteristics. Since 1963, the program has continued at [[Kostroma Moose Farm]], which had a herd of 33 [[Domestication|tame]] moose as of 2003. Although at this stage the farm is not expected to be a profit-making enterprise, it obtains some income from the sale of [[moose milk]] and from visiting tourist groups. Its main value, however, is seen in the opportunities it offers for the research in the [[physiology]] and behavior of the moose, as well as in the insights it provides into the general principles of animal [[domestication]].

In Sweden, there was a debate in the late 18th century about the national value of using the moose as a domestic animal. Among other things, the moose was proposed to be used in postal distribution, and there was a suggestion to develop a [[Moose cavalry|moose-mounted cavalry]]. Such proposals remained unimplemented, mainly because the extensive hunting for moose that was deregulated in the 1790s nearly drove it to extinction. While there have been documented cases of individual moose (eg [[Älgen Stolta]]) being used for riding and/or pulling carts and sleds, Björklöf concludes no wide-scale usage has occurred outside fairy tales.<ref>Björklöf, Sune. (1995). [http://www.nordicacademicpress.com/o.o.i.s?id=52&vid=123 "Har älgar tämjts till kavalleri?"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714194546/http://www.nordicacademicpress.com/o.o.i.s?id=52&vid=123 |date=July 14, 2011 }}, ''Populär Historia'', no 5. Visited May 17, 2010.</ref>