MOOSE
Charater Grid I think this moose character may be becoming a little too literal. Maybe he should be a caribou although the word "moose" is funnier. Maybe the moose constantly makes up what kind of deer he is because he doesn't know, like a kid who doesn't know his daddy so he's always someone famous
Secret Desire: Love and acceptance
Fear: bears and wolves, brainworm, being trapped in great amount of snow
Fatal Flaw: Naïve, desparate for acceptance/coolness
Reaction to Stress—what does s/he become, what does s/he do? Charges people or vehicles
Humor: goofy ? Unfazed by his scrapes, although not really cynical.
Transportation: walks, pulls sleighs
Recurring Nightmare: something about being in a herd
Favorite food: cat food , porch grass, swampy buckets with things growing in them on the deck
Character Bone stucture:
Physiology
Sex : M cartoon characters often seem androgynous, was imagining him as gay
Age: possibly 1 (recently tossed out by his mom) or 4, the year before most Moose begin breeding. He is meant to represent college age or early 20’s person
Height and Weight: 6ft. tall, 1000lbs
Color of hair, eyes, skin: brown , furry, has hollow fur, overheats easily. Tries to stay in the shade
Posture: lounging to stiff
Appearance: wide-eyed, hipster-esque. May be thin from lack of food on deck
Defects and Heredity: His antlers lack symmetry. Not particularly intelligent
Sociology(moose and his environment): Moose is very much out of his element. His native environment is very cold and snowy. His body is adapted for snow and swampy areas.
Class: Beta/Omega
Occupation: Lives off the street/earth
Education: has only grown up with other moose, equivalent of one race high school/small town
Home Life: grew up in AK, now resides on the deck
Religion: does he have a strange Moose religion? Something like Mormon (polygamy) and based on the Northern lights
Race, nationality: Canadian? Is trying to make it in America, but is used to a much nicer place with free heath care etc
Place in community: Beta/Omega
Political affiliation: not interested in politics, which he finds boorish, unless in a partyish setting, and then it always goes on too long
Amusements, hobbies: picked up smoking, socializing,
Psychology
Sex life, moral standards: very slutty, has very little sex ed, very little fear over consequences of his coupling. Wants to be hard like city animals, but isn’t. Is terrified of violence
Personal premise, ambition: To fit in, survive and ultimately thrive in the big city
Frustrations, chief disappointments: expects to live a charmed life, but finds difficulty, others are cynical, city living lacks the glamor that he expects
Temperament: initially very trusting, happy-go-lucky, thinks he wants to try new things but is often afraid.
Attitude toward life: having an adventure, oscillates from feeling freed from his previous existence and excited to fearful
Complexes:
Extrovert? Introvert? ambivert?
Abilities: can walk through very deep snow
Qualities:
IQ: Medium to medium low
Notes:
Research notes:
Description- This horse-sized animal is the largest member of the deer family with long, dark brown hair, high, humped shoulders and long legs. A pendant of hair-covered skin sometimes reaching 2 feet hangs under the throat. Each April the male moose or bull grows a set of antlers reaching 120-150 cm which he loses in the winter after rutting season.
Distribution - The moose occurs in spruce forests, swamps, aspen and willow thickets; it is built to live in rough country and is well adapted to a cold climate. It can be found throughout most of B.C.
Biology - The rut lasts from early September to late October and 8 months later 1-2 calves are born. Moose are unpredictable and sometimes dangerous; although they generally avoid human contact, cows with calves and rutting bulls have been known to charge people, cars, horses and locomotives.
Habits and Habitats
The breeding season or rut extends from mid-September through mid-October. In the northeast moose don't form permanent pair bonds. The bull stays with the cow only long enough to breed, then he leaves in pursuit of another cow. Both bulls and cows travel more during this time in pursuit of a mate. Usually only mature bulls five years or older breed. Bulls defend a cow they're pursuing, driving off younger bulls and sparring with more evenly matched opponents or youngsters bold enough to test their strength. Bull moose don't feed during the rut and lose considerable weight. After the rut several bulls may be seen eating together fattening up for the upcoming winter.
Unlike bulls, cows breed at the age of 1 1/2 years. They give birth, at age two, usually to one calf. Twins are common after a cow reaches age four (triplets are rare but do occur in the state). Cows have been known to kill wolves, grizzlies, black bear, and people in defense of their calves. A yearling calf will stay with its mother until new calves are born. Calves are born in mid-May or early June weighing 20-25 pounds. They're reddish brown in color with no spots. By fall they weigh 300-400 pounds.
Moose may live 20 years, but average lifespan is 10-12 years. They die from various causes. Black bear are a significant predator on moose calves until calves are nine weeks old. By then calves can outmaneuver a bear. Coyotes may take an occasional calf. Moose are susceptible to a tiny parasite known as brainworm. White-tailed deer carry the parasite, although they're unaffected. The parasite passes from deer feces to a land snail to the moose which ingest the snail while feeding on browse. Moose usually die from this infection. Moose also die from severe infestations of winter ticks. Moose attempt to remove ticks by scratching, licking, and rubbing often removing their hair at the same time. This can lead to secondary infections and hypothermia. One moose can carry 10,000 to 120,000 ticks. Moose also die as a result of collisions with automobiles.
Food Habits and Habitats
Moose is an Algonquin term for "eater of twigs." Moose are primarily browsers feeding on leaves, twigs, and buds of hardwood and softwood trees and shrubs. A healthy moose will eat 40-60 pounds of browse daily. Moose favor willows, birches, aspens, maples, fir, and viburnums, in the fall they begin feeding on the bark of some hardwoods, particularly maples and aspens. In the winter moose feed on the buds and new woody growth of these plants.
Moose feed heavily on sodium-rich aquatic plants in summer. Cows also prefer to keep their calves near water as an escape route for their calves. Ponds are used by both sexes to escape from moose flies and other pesky insects and to keep cool. Moose licks form in wet areas on the sides of highways where road salt accumulates. Moose visit these areas to drink the salty water thereby satisfying their salt requirements. In the fall, bull moose create wallows by pawing out depressions then urinating in them. Bulls and cows will roll in the wallow during the breeding season.
Black and grizzly bears are the main predators. Wolves kill them in winter when the snow is deep to their advantage or on ponds and lakes where it is easy for the moose to slip and fall. Wolverines and cougars are also known to kill calves. On the Island of Newfoundland, moose is an important game animal, with approximately 22,000 being harvested yearly.
Moose can swim as fast as two men paddling a canoe and run up to 56 kmph on land.
In running through the woods the Moose throws his head back, and, despite the spread and weight of his horns, he is able to move about without breaking a twig.
The clumsy shape of the head is accentuated by the hump on the nose, which is due to the excessive development of the nasal septum and of the upper lip, which is long and supple, and adapted to browsing rather than to cropping grass. The short neck of the Moose would in any case interfere with the cropping of grass, even if it were found in the snowy inlands of Alaska. Its common food is the twigs and bark of willows and birches, which it rides down to reach the tops, lichens and mosses and the aquatic plants of summer.
In winter the Moose herd together in the snow, forming great tramped-down places called moose yards by hunters. In summer comes the rutting season, in which the great males shake their antlers and attack any animal that comes their way. With summer comes mosquitoes also, and these pester the Moose to such an extent that they are galled to a greater fury. So it is that the Moose is a most dangerous animal in the time when the ground is clear, the swamps full of mosquitoes and his horns newly stripped of velvet for the fray.
When the snow lies so deep that he cannot travel even with his long legs, the enemies of the Moose have him at a disadvantage, and often the yards are attacked by wolves or bears or, worse yet, by agile men on snowshoes. Killing in the snow is not recognized as legitimate sport, and is resorted to only by skin hunters or men lacking in the higher ideals of sportsmen. The ordinary method of hunting deer in the summer is by imitating the rutting cry of the male, the reply of the cow and the defiant challenge of the male again, followed by the thrashing and scraping of the trees and branches where the hunter lies concealed. These cries are produced by blowing through a birch bark horn, and on account of the blind fury of the rutting males they are often very successful in bringing them to their death.
Wolves typically kill moose by tearing at their haunches and perineum, causing massive blood loss. Occasionally, a wolf may immobilize a moose by biting its sensitive nose, the pain of which can paralyze a moose.[18] Wolf packs primarily target calves and elderly animals, but can and will take healthy, adult moose. Moose between the ages of two and eight are
rarely killed by wolves.[19]
Kostroma Moose Farm
