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Moose Love
NorthernFocus
Registered Users Posts: 1,347 Major grins
Just getting around to processing some stuff from this past fall. I had an opportunity to watch moose go through the entire courting ritual. This post could get a bit long...
I ran across a decent sized bull that was just hanging out around a grassy field. As I watched he created a wallow/rut pit. He pawed away the grass then scratched out a shallow depression in the ground. He then squatted and urinated in the depression turning it into a mud puddle. Then he leaned forward with his head near the puddle and stomped in it to splash the urine/mud all over his head, neck, and antlers. Afterward he lay back down a few yards away. In this photo you can see his head/neck fur is wet and there is mud and urine splattered under his antlers. If you look carefully you can see gobs of mud no his face. Smelling VERY manly...
A cow came into the field and he got up to check her out.
He smelled so good that she decided to lie down and wallow in the rut pit. The theory is that chemicals in the bull's urine actually induce the female to come into estrus.
She walks over into the edge of the woods and he follows.
This is called "flehmen" behavior. After smelling the cow (opposite end of the head) the bull pulls back his lips to expose glands in his mouth to her scent. This is how he determines if she is ready to mate.
The cow walks all the way around him rubbing against his body. Very tender to watch but biologists will tell you she was just trying to get more of his pee on herself...
A little more foreplay...
And I won't go any farther than this lest my post get censored....
I ran across a decent sized bull that was just hanging out around a grassy field. As I watched he created a wallow/rut pit. He pawed away the grass then scratched out a shallow depression in the ground. He then squatted and urinated in the depression turning it into a mud puddle. Then he leaned forward with his head near the puddle and stomped in it to splash the urine/mud all over his head, neck, and antlers. Afterward he lay back down a few yards away. In this photo you can see his head/neck fur is wet and there is mud and urine splattered under his antlers. If you look carefully you can see gobs of mud no his face. Smelling VERY manly...
A cow came into the field and he got up to check her out.
He smelled so good that she decided to lie down and wallow in the rut pit. The theory is that chemicals in the bull's urine actually induce the female to come into estrus.
She walks over into the edge of the woods and he follows.
This is called "flehmen" behavior. After smelling the cow (opposite end of the head) the bull pulls back his lips to expose glands in his mouth to her scent. This is how he determines if she is ready to mate.
The cow walks all the way around him rubbing against his body. Very tender to watch but biologists will tell you she was just trying to get more of his pee on herself...
A little more foreplay...
And I won't go any farther than this lest my post get censored....
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