How Big is a Moose, Really?

If ever found yourself asking this question, here's all you need to know.
At one point or another throughout life, you have probably asked somebody just how big is a moose, anyways? Well, a big bull is huge. As a matter of fact they are the largest member of the deer family in North America. They can weigh over 1,000 pounds and be up to seven feet tall at the shoulders. Considering that is only at the shoulders, a bull moose is much taller than that when you factor in the head and antlers. So yeah, moose are big.Show more

It's hard to imagine an animal like this still exists in the the world. To me, they seem like a relic from our past that used to rub shoulder with the wooly mammoth and ran from cavemen. However, they are still here and flourishing in Alaska, some parts of Europe, as well as Canada.

Here in America though, their populations are in great decline. Minnesota and the Northeast have seen the most rapid drop in populations. Studies are underway trying to figure why. Currently the culprits are most likely winter tick infestations, brain worms, bacterial infections, to even liver flukes. Harsh winters over the past several years from possible climate change have also not helped at all. in the meantime all we can do is hope an answer is right around the corner and our American moose populations can start to rebound.

However, when it comes to how big a full-grown moose really is, let's have some fun here. It's easy to say a poundage and a height, but there's more to it than that. If you are like me, you like to think in pictures, not in numbers. So, let's dig in.

Weight
Okay, so as it was written above, the average moose can weight over 1000 pounds. To put that in perspective, that's about the same weight as a grand piano. Some Alaskan moose get much bigger, but on average, that's a good rough size. You know what else weights 1000 pounds? A polar bear. Yes, just imagine in your head how big polar bears are. I'm not talking about small little black bears, but their giant man-eating cousins. Well, a big bull moose is about that big. Also, in most cases, a big brown bear is no match for a full-grown moose. Most things on this Earth aren't either in a face to face showdown, though.

An adult cow weighs about 1500 pounds. A giant moose could get up to that range range fairly easily. Actually, the largest moose ever recorded weighed in at 1,800 pounds. That was a full grown adult bull moose from the Yukon, but different species of moose rarely get that big. They just grow them differently in the Land of the Midnight Sun.

As you can imagine a moose has a huge appetite to maintain this weight. They typically consumer about 60 pounds of different species of aquatic plants. In other words, that's a whole lot of food!

Height
An adult moose is about seven to eight feet at the shoulders. When they look upright, they could be as tall as 10 feet if you factor in the head and the horns. This makes them easily the biggest of any deer species on the planet. A male moose is often much bigger than a female moose, too. Regardless, either sex is still pretty dang tall. So how tall is tall? Let's find out.

A seven foot moose at the shoulders is about the same height as Andre the Giant, or Shaquille O'Neil. A 10 foot moose, if you factor in the head and horns, would be about the size of an upright basketball hoop. If you want to walk out to your kitchen, it's about two times the height of your refrigerator.

Perhaps the next time you decide to go moose hunting, this might give you a little perspective into the size of your target. If nothing else these facts about moose might make you the winner of a trivia contest some day down the road. If that is the case, then you are welcome in advance.

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