Alces alces gigas and Mooselings

I've been told that most scientific names are straight forward. With respect to the specific descriptor "gigas" for moose (Alces alces), I'd have to agree. Gigas is Greek for giant. Like so many words, it can also mean other things - like one billion, as in gigavolt, meaning one billion volts. In this case, multiple meanings converge into one easily understood concept: BIG. See a special note about Alces alces at the end for the "wordies" out there.

So, a giga moose and her twins, sometimes called "mooslings," were browsing around my garden at 6 AM this morning. How did I know? Was I perchance awake and having coffee at 6? No, not me. Clark, my gigas dog, woke me up huddling next to the bed, having "broken" into the house from his assigned bed in the attached greenhouse. Although he weighs more than I do, Clark is a total sissy when it comes to moose. He's a little braver about bear. He barked furiously at the giant grizzly strolling through at 3 AM a few mornings ago. Unlike the moose, the visiting Griz (Ursus arctos horribillis) stayed on the path and ate nothing, and was easily dispersed with a blast from my air horn.

Not so with mom and mooslings. They came for breakfast and stayed - despite my Fish & Game authorized moose dispersal implement: a BB gun. It's worked before but in this case all my BBs accomplished was reciprocal defensive posturing. I was glad I had a house backing me up. The twins were a little more skittish. They wheeled to leave but one tangled for a moment in the hose draped over the fence. Big yank - all along the length of the hose, ordinarily attached to a faucet at the house. It's a long run, but the tension, provided by 200 pounds of tug, rippled the full length. By some stroke of good luck, I had disconnected it, so no damage was done, to calf or to hose or house.

Having failed in my initial moose be-gone strategy, I tried the air horn. No effect. This second attempt with the air horn was actually a scientific experiment. Last summer, hiking back alone from Seduction Point, armed with air horn and dog, I encountered a moose, in of all places, Moose Meadows. I sounded my air horn. All that it did was bring A. alces gigas closer to investigate. And it sent my dog scurrying in the other direction. I followed the dog. My current working hypothesis is that air horns have no effect on moose, but are dandy deterrents for grizzlies. (If you have any data on the relative effect of air horns on moose, maybe we can put our stats together and publish. Of course, I can't remember any one of any authority ever telling me to use an air horn to deter moose.... )

By now, the twins were really getting busy. They started to play with a green plastic Adirondack chair. Maybe they thought it was a big plant. Hooves were precariously near dahlias. Roses were being pruned by mom. Though I have plenty of equisetum (horsetail), a favorite moose food, domestic ornamentals were definitely the preferred snack. So I resorted to the classic strategy: clanging metal against metal. That seemed to do the trick - that or they were just done with breakfast.

Now a note for my fellow "wordies." It turns out that Alces alces is Latin for "elk." In fact, in Europe "moose" are called "elk." According to Wikipedia

The name moose is derived from the Algonquian Eastern Abnaki name moz, meaning "he trims, shaves."

A moose, as we all know so well, is also translated as "eater of twigs." And there are twigs a plenty where I live. I have no doubt A. alces gigas and children will be back.