We encountered this young moose (commonly referred to as calves) with its mother while driving down the NE Entrance Road (highway 212) on our way back to the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel from our day trip to Cook City, Montana. This is the first young moose I have seen in Yellowstone National Park. It was great opportunity to photograph it at a decent distance.
All young moose are born in the spring. The cows (mother moose) become pregnant in the fall, usually late September or early October. After only a few days a moose calf is capable of outrunning a human. Moose gain weight at an incredible rate in the first year of life. A calf will gain more than one pound a day in the spring and later will have weight gain of over 4 pounds a day. When born, calves are dark brown in color, almost black. When moose are born they are completely helpless. A single born baby moose calf will weight around 30 pounds while twins will weight somewhat less at about 14 pounds. At this time they are completely vulnerable to predators. To protect her calf, the cow will keep her calf completely hidden for several days.
This image was taken with my Canon EOS 7D Mark II using my Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 II Lens set on 220mm. The camera was set on Manual mode with the aperture set at f/8, shutter speed at 1/400th of a second and the ISO set at 320. I hand-held the camera for this shot. This is a single image processed in Lightroom and completed in Photoshop using Nik Color Efex Pro.
You can access my Yellowstone NP/Grand Teton NP collection by clicking here. Please use the section below to post your comments, questions or suggestions.
© 2020 T. Kahler Photography
PS: Please don’t respond to this message as it will not reach me. Either post a comment or forward your response to my email address (terry@tkahler.com).
