Fun Moose Facts

Moosehead Lake from the highway leading into town.

Lillian of Moosehead Lake Campground shared with me the following fun facts in my elusive search to view a live moose...

• Moose have no top front teeth.
• After the first calf, moose often have twins in subsequent pregnancies.
• In the Moosehead Lake Region, moose outnumber people three to one (Ha! Prove it!)
• An adult bull moose can stand over 7 feet tall from the ground to the top of his antlers.
• A moose calf weighs 30 pounds at birth and grows to 300 pounds in just five months!
• An adult bull moose can weigh up to 1,600 pounds and a female up to 1,300 pounds.
• An old moose is 15 years old.
• Moose can only see about 25 feet.
• Best time to see a moose is at dusk or early in the morning, especially during May and June (when they come out of the forest to escape the flies.)
• Moose prefer shady, wet areas such as bogs or marshes.

Rufus, the moose.

Rufus is as close as we have come to being able to photograph a real moose and he is in the recreation hall of one of our campgrounds near Freeport, ME.  He weighed 1,500 pounds and lived to be quite old for a moose.  He had a double set of antlers (a smaller set are behind the ones you can see here) and part of his right ear had been bitten off (mostly likely in a battle over a female.)  We were told we could drive about seven miles from the campground to Gray Zoo and see a live moose named George.  We did not make it to the zoo on this trip because of our schedule of inspections, but if we get back to Freeport we'll have to make time to see George!