Moose spend much of the daylight hours bedded down after grazing during the pre-dawn and first light periods.
Over the past 8 years or so, I’ve taken thousands of shots of moose bedded down in various locations and under most conditions and light. Resting moose images probably aren’t as popular or romantic as ones crossing a stream or in some sort of rut behavior. I enjoy trying to capture them—but then, I also take photos of metal rusting and paint peeling! For viewers not around moose that often, this Feature Post should enlighten you about some of their lifestyle and behavior when they are not “posing” for us in the other classic shots. This page is loaded with some of my favorite resting moose images, along with some comments about them.
Moose usually bed down within an hour of the first light hitting the valley floor. They may continue to graze at the edges of the forest or move to the relative safety of the willow trees, but you’ll seldom them find them standing in the sagebrush during the heat of the day. To get resting moose shots, all you have to do is stay with them in the morning until they go down. It’s a given.
After feeding and going through their morning rut behavior, moose move to a cool, shady spot. They do a good job of bedding down in a place with small stems or branches in front of them. You’d almost think they do it to annoy photographers! Since I live here and get plenty of opportunities, I typically don’t photograph one with stems in their face unless the rest of the scene is outstanding.
It is possible to remove small imperfections in Photoshop. The “content aware” healing brushes can work wonders. It all depends on how much of a purist you are and how many days you can spend photographing them.
It doesn’t happen that often, but occasionally a moose will reach out and chew off a branch or stem, cleaning up the scene the natural way!
Perfect! No Photoshop needed on that pesky branch!
I’d like to get more of this kind of image showing some of the distant mountains. Normally, I am out with a 200-400mm lens. It takes something wider like a 70-200mm lens to include much of the environment. Ideally, I’d be about 10 feet from the moose with a short lens to let them fill the frame—but that would be illegal and dangerous. They never seem to be alarmed or concerned with me at 35-40 yards out. Most moose in GTNP were born here and have grown up with photographers and tourists around them. As long as people don’t abuse the privilege, GTNP moose appear to view us no differently than any other grazing pronghorn, elk, or bison they see in the same areas. Back country moose “might” be less tolerant and either run or charge.
Early morning or late evening light always help “romance” an image. A little “catch light” in the eyes helps most images, too.
While this little bull has a lot of character, it is more of novelty shot for me. My rule of thumb is “shoot now” and try to decide if it has any long term value later. This particular image makes a great addition to this post, but who knew in 2008 I’d be writing a blog post in 2014. I didn’t know what a blog was in 2008.
I tend to spend more time following the larger bulls and taking their photos—even the resting versions. They are wonderful subjects with a lot of expression and character! A bull will typically yawn once or twice after lying down. They also stretch their neck once or twice before settling into an extended nap.
Most “sleep” with their head up. They can close their eyes, yet listen for threatening sounds by swiveling their ears in any direction. It is not uncommon to watch a moose’s head bob from semi-consciousness to full sleep like I used to do in a 7:00 am art history slide show back in college. Sometimes they roll over on their side, as seen above.
Occasionally, one of the big bulls will fall asleep…all lights out! The fall rut can drain their energy.
This bull woke up with snow stuck to his antler. He slept for roughly 15 minutes.
This bull bedded down in an open area, revealing his folded legs. This kind of shot isn’t too common.
If one resting bull is good, then two resting bulls must be even better!
Then again, if two bulls are good, six bulls are much better!
During the fall rut, bulls stay fairly close to the prime cows.
It’s rewarding to be able to capture behavioral shots, too! This bull was prodding the cow to get up for a little “action”.
This little frisky calf bedded down on a sand bar. The bull walked up, got a drink and bedded down next to the water. I shot this scene from several angles, but liked this one best.
Large bulls are often amazingly tolerant of a smaller bull. During the heat of the rut, you’ll seldom find two of the large bulls that friendly around each other.
After the rut, bulls often reassemble in small groups. One year, quite a while back, I counted 28 antlered moose in one area, plus several I was sure were bulls that had already lost their antlers. I haven’t seen that many since, and reports indicate moose populations have been on the decline. Once moose bed down in the sagebrush, they can be difficult to spot, made worse once their fur gets covered with snow.
By mid-December, some of the bulls shed their antlers. This bull had apparently just lost one of his. The off-balance effect of having only one antler must be hard on them. This bull was following a group of around 6 bulls but was constantly bedding down to rest while the others continued to graze.
I’ve heard it said the largest bulls lose their antlers first, but I am not so sure that is a correct statement. I don’t really see much of a pattern to it at all.
Most tourists visit Jackson Hole during the Summer and Fall and never get to see moose in snow like this.
What goes down, must come up! Newton didn’t exactly say it that way, I guess. If you are willing to wait him out, a resting moose will eventually get up. They almost always do a unique “stretch” of their back and neck before being ready to continue with the rut or feeding again. Click this image to see it much larger!
I typically don’t take that many shots of resting cows. In the early part of June, moose are shaggy and not too “pretty”—and that’s being polite! Early June is also about the time the cows show up with newborn calves. Exceptions have to be made!
This is another example of capturing a resting cow moose while doing something unique. By mid-August, afternoons can get warm enough to bake their dark fur.
This young calf was just too cute to pass up!
Okay, I would have photographed this bull in velvet whether he was in the sagebrush, willows, or grass, but catching him in a cool pool was a a treat.
Once a bull’s antlers get to a point the velvet is ready to scrape off, they rub their antlers against just about anything they can find. Apparently, this bull found a worthy tent or clothes line. The line must have affected his desire to finish the velvet stripping. Luckily for the moose, both antlers would be falling off in December and he’d be ready to start over next year. Bulls start stripping their velvet a few days either side of Labor Day, but not all begin at the same time.
Bull Moose seldom spar until they have had a chance to strip off all of their velvet. Once stripped and their antlers polished, they become a multi-purpose tool. When bedded down, they often use their antlers to scratch their back. By late December and into early January, he’ll lose his back built-in scratcher.
This venerable bull moose (I call “Washakie“) has been one of my favorite subjects. I first photographed him with a digital camera in 2006. He was an impressive bull even back then, but each year, his antlers have been getting larger and more distinctive. He’s in quite a few of the images in this post above. He spends much of August near the big pull out along the Gros Ventre river feeding on fresh willow leaves and stems. During the rut, he can roam along the Gros Ventre all the way from the highway to the town of Kelly. As the willow leaves wain, moose begin to switch their diet to bitter brush, which grows alongside sagebrush in the open flats. This shot, taken in mid-November (only a few days ago), will probably be one of the last images I get of Washakie this year. He has snow on his face from pushing snow away to get to the low bitter brush. Their long legs allow them to pass over high snow and tall sagebrush. Their thick fur allows them to tolerate -30°F temps and heavy winds. They can sometimes be found near the roads near Ditch Creek road, but eventually, they move on West and out of range for most people.
During the coldest periods of winter, finding water might be a moose’s biggest challenge. This irrigation ditch originates at the Kelly Warm Springs and travels towards the Mormon Row barns. Most parts of Ditch Creek freeze solid, but I believe moose move away from the roads and towards this irrigation ditch for the chances to break through the ice. Once an opening is found, other moose drink from the same spot. While this isn’t a resting moose photo, it goes with the preceding image and caption.
I am working on another Feature Post containing a collection of “unique” moose activities, similar to the one above. Now’s a great time to sign up to follow this blog if you haven’t done so. You’ll receive an email notifying you of any new feature posts. This photo makes me smile. It reminds me of a story about one of my young nephews. His mother had quoted the line from the Bible that goes something like, “And, Jesus walked on the water”. My nephew pondered it a minute…then said, “Must have been damned cold”.
Shooting Info
Most of these shots were taken with a Nikon 200-400mm lens at a range of around 40 yards. Most have a little cropping. The early images were taken with a Nikon 300 and later shots were taken with either a Nikon D4 or a Nikon 800. Resting moose seldom move their head too fast, so shutter speeds are not much of an issue. The distance from the tip of the nose to his ears is close to 2 feet. Lower shutter speeds and smaller apertures normally work fine. If looking at me, I typically focus on their eyes and let their muzzle go out of focus slightly. When at a 3/4 pose, most of the face will be sharp.
Shooting Comments
For this Feature Post, I went through around 20,000 moose images and found around 1500 resting moose shots. No telling how many thousand additional resting moose shots I took and deleted. I included way more images on this page than some might think is appropriate for a blog post, but I tried to find images with some sort of unique nature or quality. When you are out in the field, it is way too easy to set up on a tripod and shoot 300-400 images of essentially the same pose of a resting moose. That just means you spend a lot of time having to cull a bunch of them. Over the years, I shoot less of them and cull more of them. I’d probably be much more discrete if I had to change rolls after every 36 captures.
If I find a nice bull moose in the morning and stay with him until he beds down, I typically head home or go somewhere else during the middle of the day. Moose sometimes get up in the middle of the day, but usually only to switch sides or move to a new shady spot. If I go back in the afternoon, they are seldom more than 50-70 yards from where I left them in the morning. I will usually be more tempted to go back in the afternoon if I left them bedded down somewhere near the river. They usually go to the water once a day, sometimes crossing after taking a good drink. Wild mustangs, elk, and pronghorns males “herd” their harem, usually away from other males. During the rut, bull moose normally just follow the “hot” cow wherever she goes instead of trying to keep her in a specific area.
Maybe you’ll agree—even when they are just resting, moose are incredibly captivating animals.
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