FAIRBANKS — Once a calf stealer, always a calf stealer.
That’s what local moose experts say about a cow moose that has showed up in the same Fairbanks neighborhood with three moose calves in tow two years in a row.
State wildlife biologist Tom Seaton with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game said chances are “probably pretty good” that the cow moose wandering around the east end of Farmers Loop with three moose calves has adopted, or stolen, a calf or two from another moose each of the past two years.
“That’s a behavioral thing,” Seaton said. “I would assume if a cow has the behavior to pick up calves from other cows it would be likely that could happen again. Behavior doesn’t change from one year to the next.”
And make no mistake, some cow moose are calf stealers, the biologist said.
“It’s not uncommon,” Seaton said. “All kinds of weird stuff goes on with calf trading and calf robbery with moose.”
Linda Emmert, who took a picture of the four moose lined up next to each other on Thursday morning in her yard on Spring Glade Road, is certain the cow is the same one she saw last year in her yard with three calves.
“She has the same bell. She’s the same size. The coloring is the same,” Emmert said. “I am absolutely sure she’s the same cow.”
Whether or not all three calves are hers, however, is another question. Biologists say it’s extremely rare for cow moose to give birth to triplets, even in ideal conditions.
“It’s really rare, especially in the Interior where moose densities are high and the nutritional level is low,” Seaton said. “I don’t know what the odds are, but they’re very small odds.”
As it is, fewer than 10 percent of the moose in the Fairbanks area give birth to twins, Seaton said.
University of Alaska Fairbanks wildlife biology professor Kris Hundertmark worked at the Kenai Moose Research Center for 15 years and never saw triplets.
Whether or not a moose gets pregnant is dependent on what kind of nutritional shape the moose is in, Hundertmark said. The more a moose gets to eat, the better chances are it will get pregnant and have multiple calves.
“Ovulation in moose is related to nutrition,” he said. “At the moose pens we had moose in wonderful condition because they were being supplementally fed, and I don’t ever recall a set of triplets.”
Given how physically demanding it is for cows to nurse multiple calves, the chances of a cow moose having triplets two years in a row is “really, really hard to believe,” Hundertmark said.
“The primary factor involved is whether or not those first set of triplets survived to weaning,” he said. “If she supported three calves all summer, she’s going to be in pretty poor condition come winter.
“To support three calves one summer and to ovulate three eggs that fall is pretty unlikely,” Hundertmark said.
There is no doubt, however, that cow moose steal — or adopt, for want of a more wildlife-friendly term — calves from other moose.
It’s a behavioral trait Hundertmark and other researchers at the moose research center documented and state wildlife biologists have seen with cows and calves wearing radio collars and under study — a small fraction of the population. If biologists are seeing it happen with the relatively few radio-collared moose, it’s obviously happening on a larger scale, Seaton said.
Some cow moose are more motherly and protective than others, Hundertmark said. A protective cow who has just given birth to a calf or calves “thinks every calf is hers,” he said.
“We had one line of female moose where every one was aggressive,” Hundertmark said of his time at the moose research center. “I wouldn’t doubt if aggressiveness has something to do with the ability for one cow to separate another cow from its calf.”
Judging from what he’s seen, a cow moose with twin calves doesn’t seem to notice — or care — if one calf goes missing.
“I’ve seen cows with twins run from a bear if one of the calves will run with her but if both calves don’t run, she will stay,” he said, illustrating his point. “To her it’s a calf and if a calf is with her everything is cool.”
“I’ve always maintained moose can’t count,” Hundertmark said. “A calf is a calf.”
The same thing could happen if a more-aggressive cow runs into a less aggressive cow and both have calves.
“If you’ve got two cows with twins and one of them tries to take them and the less dominant cow escapes with one, she probably feels pretty good,” Hundertmark said.
Emmert said the cow and three calves have visited her yard three or four times this summer, and though one of the calves appears slightly smaller than the other two, she likes to think they are one, big, happy family. She didn’t mind that the moose “ravaged” her garden.
“I love that there’s triplets in my yard,” she said. “I wouldn’t chase them away for anything.”
Contact staff writer Tim Mowry at 459-7587.
Thieves are humans; not moose.
I've milked cows in WI and saw how different they were, you get to know your animals, but the farmer measures milk production and that's energy.
On another note, I think the caption on the pic should read "Sept 2", not Aug 2nd?