Moose Season Getting Going(bloody photos)

[NorthernFocus]

The moose rut is about to get under way in Alaska. Immediately prior to rut, the moose lose the velvet off their antlers. This is done by rubbing on brush and tree branches and scraping the velvet off the bone antler underneath. Velvet is essentially skin so removing it is a bloody process. In the past I've never started shooting the rut until the scraping is done. This year I decided to try to capture this early portion of the season.

The scraped antler photos are pretty bloody and not to everyone's taste. I've put them at the end of the post so reading this some may decide to skip them. My bride says they're gross

First shot with Nikon D7200/70-200mm f4. Remaining with Nikon D810/300mm f2.8.

As always photos are best viewed in the light box.

This guy still has full velvet. You can see some light patches showing up which indicates the velvet is dying and is about ready to scrape off. He was making a date for a couple of weeks from now.



Another one still in velvet. Again you can see the light patches showing up. This guy has an incredibly long pull on his bell. Some people refer to it as a "dew lap". The longer section dangling down is typical of younger bulls. During severe winters the dangling portion gets frost bitten and falls off. So most bulls over five years of age have the bell but not the pull.



Now a couple of young guys who have been scraping velvet.





And they couldn't wait to try out their new hardware.

[Shadowman]

Nice series.

[Mike Buckley]

The information about the blood is brand new to me. Great photos and narrative! Do the moose experience any pain usually associated with bleeding parts?

[Jimr1961]

A most dangerous time of year.

[NorthernFocus]

...Do the moose experience any pain usually associated with bleeding parts?

Don't know. The "experts" say that the velvet tissue starts to dry up and itches them which is why they rub it off. But who knows. Not like they can tell us.

A most dangerous time of year.

That is the conventional wisdom. Though my own experience(limited to one valley in Alaska) has been otherwise. If anything the bulls seem to be so singular in their intent that they pretty much ignore people unless directly in the path of where they want to go. However in that regard, yes there is elevated danger purely due to the increased level of activity by the moose. They do have a tendency to walk down any sort of man made path, road, etc. and during the rut due to sheer number of hours they spend wandering around there is statistically higher probability of an encounter. Overall smaller bulls and cows tend to be much more troublesome than large bulls. The two bloody ones in these shots are prime candidates to give a photographer a hard time.

[IzzieK]

Again another informative post...coupled with images in them...I do not like the blood part but it is a part of their culture. I like the second shot very much -- the pose, shall I say he has the look of love?

[bnnrcn]

Thanks for the info and the photos, although I don't like seeing bloody pictures very much this is the reality

[NorthernFocus]

Thanks, ladies. Sorry about the gore. They do rather look as if they've been ripping into something with their horns. Thankfully this phase passes very quickly. Though much of the blood dries in place and will turn red again for a few days if it rains. But they rub off the remaining bits of velvet within a day or so. I suspect it rather annoys them dangling around their eyes and whatnot.

[KimC]

Wonderful shots Dan, I especially like the last one. I appreciated seeing how they shed the velvet, even thou it was a bit bloody. I didn't realize that went along with the shedding.

[John 2]

Fabulous and informative photography. Just can't choose a favourite.