Moose are a funny critter (you can associate that with the 2 & 4 legged ones). I’ve always found their biology quite fascinating. For example, them long legs, they’re for getting through the deep brush and snow they live in. They have an amazing high step but when running from a predator, it turns into this fast yet funny shuffle. Then there are those big racks, the antlers that us photographers love to photograph. As you can see in these 2-3yr olds, they ain’t got them yet but that doesn’t prevent them from playing with them.
They do serve a purpose but it’s not exactly what you might think. At this stage of life, they are just getting use to them being there. They do shed them in January after just a couple of months of wearing them and a short period of really putting them to use. At this age, these bulls will just have pushing fun, not real battles because they are not ready to become part of the mating pool. They have to figure out how to turn their head to first make a push against their opponent and then figure out how to turn their head to block a thrust. Since there are no nerves or muscles in the antlers, it’s all from the head. It’s a skill to say the least they have a short time to develop.
And believe it or not, that’s not what turns the ladies on! It’s not the battling, it’s the noise but more about that in another post. Getting the shot requires that first, you get to where they are at and that means hiking. Next is the right time of year and that depends on the region but fall, October, is the general time. Then is finding the action and that requires more than one moose. And finally, the gear. Personally, for battles the further away I can be the better so they can do their thing unimpeded. I shot this with the D4s / 200-400VR2 with TC-14eIII which put me about 40-60 yards away from the action. The final outcome of this pushing match? They headed for the hills when the big boys showed up so these youngsters know their place. Now in 3-4yrs, these kids will be the big boys and then we’ll really know how well they learned.