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The Moose has a distinctive browsing habit, eating at a height
above the reach of deer, and breaking large diameter branches,
"walking down" saplings and young trees as it strips
the leaves.
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Above: The Moose grasps a branch with its prehensile
upper lip somewhere about 50mm from the base, then strips the
leaves sideways towards the top, often until the branch snaps.
Moose
need about 15-25kg of fresh weight of forage each day, depending
on season and quality. In Fiordland most of the preferred food
species are fuscia, pate, broadleaf, three and five-finger,
mahoe ribbonwood and a number of small-leafed shrub species.
Moose appear to concentrate on a single or small group of plants
of the same species in a feeding bout, often leaving branches
bent and broken at all angles, especially with the brittle fuscia,
leaving the ground littered with stripped branches.
Below left: The moose also is thought responsible for the barking
of some of it's prefered plants. Left: large diameter branches
broken & stripped. Right: Snagged hair can often be found
near suspect moose-browse.
at present hair samples (if the hair has follicles or roots)
offer the best prospect for DNA species confirmation.
  
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 Skeletal
remains from natural death of wild animals are rare and last
only a short time in Fiordland, less than a year. Cast antlers
have a similar longevity but yield a lot of information. most
antlers have an unmistakable configuration.
Right:
These two antlers, one from an adult and one young bull,
show that these animals were living in the Wet Jacket Arm area
in the period 1975 - 1980.
Below left: A comparison of droppings; suspected moose
alongside typical red deer pellets. Pellet groups by themselves
are difficult to judge, but if found alongside other sign for
example moose-suspect browse, may help identification.
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