Even elks look for drier beds
Photo: Kaarel Kaisel
Translation: Liis
Elks
Elk; European elk; Moose (US) Euroopa põder
The mating period of these large and majestic animals ends in October. The rainy and wet autumn after a similar summer has brought the elks to higher areas, their winter-time habitats where they would have moved soon anyway.
The elk cow is again together with her calf or calves from the spring – even they weigh around a hundred kilos, and the cow, whose gestation period lasts nearly eight months, drives the calves off from her next spring before giving birth. Big and vigorous bulls now recover from the mating period exhaustion. Strong males may fertilise up to seven cows and antlers are still proudly worn until they start to be shed off in December.
The brownish grey fur turns a little lighter for the winter coat, particularly on the legs. Leafy food becomes ever more rare in nature, and so elks by and by turn to the winter food ration – thinner twigs and tree bark, but for the daily doings of the animals some twenty kilos are needed – just imagine such a pile.
The elk hunting period in Estonian forests begins already during the mating period, from September 15th, lasting until mid-December. The life of the King of the forest is not always easy...