Importance of Nonbrowse Foods to Moose on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

LeResche, Robert; Davis, James

Food intake of three tame moose (Alces alces) was observed on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska during summer on normal range and during winter and spring on normal and depleted range. Plant species and bite sizes were recorded for 49,308 bites consumed. Food eaten varied between summer and winter, and moose ate a greater variety of forage than previously realized. Birch (Betula papyrifera) leaves comprised 56 percent (by number of bites) of the summer diet, forbs 25 percent, grasses, sedges and aquatics 10 percent, and willow (Salix spp.) 5 percent. Winter diet on range that had supported average moose densities for the area (15 per square mile) was 72 percent birch twigs, 21 percent lowbush cranberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) and 6 percent willow and alder (Alnus crispa). On depleted winter range, stocked for 18 months with abnormally high moose densities, birch twigs comprised only 22 percent of the diet. The bulk of bites taken were of lowbush cranberry (51 percent) and foliose lichens (Peltigera spp.) (23 percent). In May, moose consumed 20-30 times as much cranberry and lichen as birch. Availability of understory foliate species during part of the winter is probably an important factor in supporting the very high moose densities found on this range.

Importance of Nonbrowse Foods to Moose on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

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