🫎Photo: Ryan Hagerty · Public domain
🫎Moose
The moose or elk is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only extant species in the genus Alces. It is also the tallest, and the second-largest, land animal in North America, falling short only to the American bison in body mass. Most adult male moose have broad, palmate antlers; other members of the deer family have pointed antlers with a dendritic ("twig-like") configuration. Moose inhabit the circumpolar boreal forests or temperate broadleaf and mixed forests of the Northern Hemisphere, thriving in cooler, temperate areas as well as subarctic climates.
Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
IUCN Red List assessment, 2016.
- Body mass
- 360 kg
- Body length
- 2.97 m
- Shoulder height
- not recorded
- Top speed
- 55 km/h
- Bite force
- not recorded
- Maximum lifespan
- 27 years
Everything we know about the Moose
Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.
Body mass360 kgCOMBINEOther figures ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Figures vary
- 386 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: low
Body length2.97 mCOMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Top speed55 km/hDetails ↓Hide ↑
Sprint over a short distance, not a sustained pace. Compilations give 54.55 and 55.98 km/h.
Source: Bejan & Marden 2006, J Exp Biol 209:238 and Christiansen 2002, Zool J Linn Soc 136:685; compiled in Hirt et al. 2017, Nat Ecol Evol 1:1116, Supplementary Data · see citation
Brain mass425 gCOMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Maximum lifespan27 yearsCOMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Generation length9.76 yearsCOMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Age at maturity1.8 yearsCOMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Gestation242 daysCOMBINEOther figures ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Figures vary
- 243 daysAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: low
Litter size1COMBINEOther figures ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Figures vary
- 1.3AnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: low
Trophic levelHerbivoreCOMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Activity cycleCrepuscular / mixedCOMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Home range72 km²COMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Population density0.65 per km²COMBINEDetails ↓Hide ↑
Source: COMBINE · v1 (Soria et al. 2021) · CC BY 4.0
Volume l360 LaverageDetails ↓Hide ↑
Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.
average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.
Not recorded for Moose yet: shoulder height, bite force.
Family tree
- kingdomAnimalia
- ›phylumChordata
- ›classMammalia
- ›orderArtiodactyla
- ›familyCervidae
- ›genusAlces
- ›speciesAlces alces
- classMammals · Mammalia
- orderEven-toed hoofed animals · Artiodactyla
- familyCervidae
- genusAlces
All 15 branches ↓Fewer branches ↑
- kingdomMetazoa
- phylumChordata
- subphylumCraniata
- subphylumVertebrata
- superclassGnathostomata
- superclassSarcopterygii
- superclassTetrapoda
- classMammals · Mammalia
- subclassTheria
- superorderLaurasiatheria
- orderEven-toed hoofed animals · Artiodactyla
- suborderRuminantia
- infraorderPecora
- familyCervidae
- genusAlces
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