During the summer of 2022, SLU's partner, the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), placed camera collars on three bull moose on the Norwegian island of Vega. For five days, the cameras recorded 25 seconds of video every three minutes.
The videos from the moose collars revealed how moose behaved throughout the day and in particular what they chose to eat. The better understand the feeding choices the researchers combined the feeding observations with plant nutrient analyses of the plants eaten and also measured food availability in the area moose traversed.
A preference for willows
- We saw that the moose carefully balanced their diet by adjusting their intake of protein, sugars and fats to match the nutritional profile of willows (Salix spp). If there were no willows available nearby the moose instead ate a mixture of other plants in a process called complementary feeding to stay close to their nutritional target,’ says Robert Spitzer, researcher at SLU in Umeå.
The results from summer align with previous findings from a study conducted in Sweden during winter, where the researchers analyzed moose dung pellets to determine moose diets during a period when food is limited.
Whenever willows were not abundantly available and snow cover was low, moose combined pine and bilberry shrubs in their diet to reach a nutritional target similar to willows.
- The results from Norway provide us with valuable insights for wildlife management and nature conservation and further emphasize the sophisticated dietary strategies of moose,’ says Robert Spitzer.
A project with cameras on moose in Sweden has also been initiated, but it will take a couple of years before there are any results from that project.
For an impression of a typical day of a moose on Vega, watch the short video ‘What do moose do all day´.
The scientific article
Robert Spitzer, Monica Ericson, Annika M. Felton, Morten Heim, David Raubenheimer, Erling J. Solberg, Hilde K. Wam, Christer M. Rolandsen
Camera collars reveal macronutrient balancing in free-ranging male moose during summer https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.70192
