As detailed in a previous blog post near the end of May, I was fortunate to stumble across a cow moose with a newborn calf that was only hours old. Within days, the calf was mobile enough, however, that the mother moved on and I lost track of them. Then about a week ago, I spotted a cow with a moose calf. I was a long distance away and I had barely snapped a photo when I thought I saw a second calf. I wasn't certain though and I wasn’t able to get another photo before they disappeared into the willows. I returned for several mornings after that and I finally spotted a cow with a calf in the same area feeding early in the morning. This time I was able to watch them for a while and I got a few decent photos, although it was well before the sun came out. I was certain that there was only one calf, however, so I figured that I hadn't actually seen a second calf on the previous occasion, but perhaps I had caught the motion of a bird or another animal. I continued to return to the same area and several days later I again spotted the cow with her calf. As I watched, the cow started running for no apparent reason with the calf following her closely. When she stopped, I noticed two more calves about fifty yards away. Then I saw a second cow, obviously the mother of the twins. My confusion regarding whether there was one calf or two was finally resolved, there were actually three calves, one cow with a single calf and another with twins in the same area.
As I watched, the cow with the single calf moved towards the twins and then proceeded to charge at them kicking with her front legs. They fled into the water, no doubt confused as to what was happening. The single calf was right behind, probably just as confused as the twins. Interestingly, the mother of the twins didn’t make any attempt to intervene, she just watched from a distance. The twins, however, headed back to the safety of their mother and the two cows went different ways. A tough lesson for the moose twins that not even other moose are to be trusted. Fortunately, besides a bit of a fright, it didn’t appear that either of the twins was injured.