Two Young Moose Playing in my Yard

One of our regular site visitors sent me a couple pictures of moose playing in her yard.

This is the note she sent.

Well the moose come through our place all the time, we have several acres on Fox Mountain, which is about 5 minutes from the town of Williams Lake. I have seen moose here many, many times every year, but never this close or for such a length of time.

They did not seem at all concerned about me snapping pictures but they knew we were there.

When they finally wandered off it was her who was leading the way and he followed.

I thought it was unusual to see the pair together at this time of year. They roamed off into the longer grass where they were eating branches, etc. After about 30 minutes total they went into the forest again.

My Remarks

Yearling moose are often driven away from their mother at the time she is giving birth to this year's offspring. Unless the yearlings are driven away too frequently they will often chose to inhabit the mother's home range.
After giving birth, if the new calf is lost, the older calf may once again return to the personal space of the cow, but will be driven off once again during the breeding season.

Judging by the size of the heads of the moose playing in your pictures they are likely from last spring (1 1/2 years old)... an immature bull and cow. However, it is possible the bull is even 2 1/2; although it is hard to say without seeing more antler growth. If the prior was indeed the case, mom was likely not too far away.

As a side note regarding the behavior of cow moose...

Cow moose will tolerate her calf to enter her personal space until the time of giving birth. After that time no other moose will be tolerated in this personal space until the cow moose is ready to receive a breeding bull moose. Once again after the breeding season the cow moose will set up her personal space.

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