A Harbinger of Fall!: Moose Stripping His Velvet Covered Antlers.

Short-lived, yet captivating to experience!

Shiras Moose (Wyoming Moose) grow and pamper their delicate velvet covered antlers in August. They often begin stripping the velvet during the last few days of August, into the Labor Day Weekend, and even a few days beyond. The yearly stripping event for each bull takes place over a precious short window of time!

It takes patience and persistence to catch a bull stripping his velvet—and realistically it takes a fair amount of luck! You have to be in the right place, on the right day, and the right “hour”. I’ve seen one strip the bulk of the velvet in as little as 15 minutes!

This page contains photos from one bull on one morning…September 1st to be exact. This bull, Washakie, is one I’ve photographed digitally since 2006 and possibly even earlier on film. He was in the sagebrush at 6:57 am, with the outer portions of his velvet already stripped.

Most Moose leave the sagebrush at about the time first light hits the valley floor. As the rut progresses, the bulls follow the cows into the cottonwoods and willows, but at this time of the year, they are much more independent. They show little interest in the females, and sometimes run them off.

Coming off the sagebrush flats, Washakie stopped at the first set of willows and thrashed his antlers against leaves, branches and stems.

My wife hates these kind of photos! Too much blood for her tastes. And, they don’t sell well for the average household walls, but I like to take them. They document an important stage in their life cycle, and as I indicated, the event signals a new “season” of the Moose rut.

I’ve heard of bulls eating their velvet, but have never seen it. Washakie has this strip of velvet in his mouth, but I can’t say for certain that he was actually eating it. The velvet comes off in sheets, as seen above his left eye. I’ve heard people say they thrash the willows to sharpen their antlers, but in fact, they are pointed and ready to go!

I’ve seen Moose with branches in their antlers so many times, you’d think they do it on purpose. Bling…for the Babes! Washakie’s brow tines are already very impressive, but I guess a little extra bling to impress the photographers can’t hurt!

This image has a bit of motion blur from his thrashing and scraping, but it possibly gives a feel of the action. The next time I get a chance to photograph one thrashing like this, I plan on really dropping the shutter speed to exaggerate the motion effect.

This broken Aspen sapling was just what he needed!

They seem to prefer short cottonwood and will trees, but any tree is a candidate.

Most bulls I’ve seen continue velvet removal until it is mostly gone. A few years ago, I watched a big bull at a time when he “should have” been stripping. Patches were falling off as he grazed on willows, but he didn’t aggressively remove the velvet. The velvet dried on his antlers and it took much more effort to remove. The inner portions of his large paddles never did get cleaned.

Often, a bull will have a couple of “tassels” hanging from the rough edges at the base of their antlers. It takes them a while to remove them. Washakie didn’t have that problem this time.

There’s not much left of the Aspen stump in the image above. Almost all of the velvet was removed when this shot was taken at 7:25 am. That’s 28 minutes from the first shot of him in the sagebrush.

Once Washakie finished the stripping, he headed to the cottonwoods.

After a morning of activity, Washakie settled in for a rest in the shade of spruce tree. He has an injured left front leg again this year. He can walk on it, but spends a lot of time with his weight off the limb. By the time I see Washakie again, he will have finished removing the last of the velvet, and will likely have polished off the residual blood.

A Few Moose Notes: Most of the bulls can be distinguished from year to year by their antlers. They grow back similarly each year. Washakie always has distinctive, large brow tines. You can view him over the years on this page Washakie: Washakie has additional markings. Watch for a couple of deep scratches on the right side of his muzzle (they look a lot like a warrior’s warpaint: part of his namesake). Washakie has a fairly distinctive “dewlap” or bell below his neck, and he has a deep cut in each of his two ears. You might also enjoy this Washakie page: Moose Courtship Behavior

A Few Photography Notes: I used a Nikon D5 and a Tamron 150-600mm lens for these shots. At that time of the morning, I was having to compromise on slower shutter speeds than I would like, aperture wide open (F/6.3), and ISO that ranged often between 2000 and 4500. As the sun came up, I was able to adjust the shutter speed which adjusted the ISO when set to Manual / with Auto ISO. I took around 1600 images during my morning session with this bull and another 400 later in the day. You might enjoy this page: The Secret to Becoming a Good Photographer: Some of the shots on this page are very similar to each other, but in many cases, one showed an eye or detail not seen in images taken fractions of a second apart. Likewise, some have catch light in the eyes, while some have closed or blinking eyes. I like having the option of picking the best ones!

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