Wolverine's Killing Moose

[puppygod]

@MrSquishy

I just can’t imagine what the mechanism of death would be. I’m sure a wolverine’s jaws couldn’t do much damage to the (well-protected with muscle) throat of a moose.

Would the wolverine just scratch the shit out of the moose and wait for it to die of infection?

Bleeding. Any deep wound will cause loss of some blood. Multiply that and eventually moose will be to weak to oppose being eaten any more.

@Elendil's Heir

astro, watching that video of the lions attacking the baby elephant, I kept thinking “Ouch ouch ouch ouch OUCH!” If I were the elephant, I’d roll over hard a couple of times. Smoosh a few lions, they won’t be quite so eager to nibble on you.

Only problem is that elephants aren’t that good in rolling around. Actually when down, they have some serious trouble with getting up.

[B_A_Bay]

A healthy moose is more than a match for a pack of wolves, a sick moose would be taken down. I grew up in the country and have seen my share of wolverines, bears, moose and such, there is NO way one wolverine could kill a moose, unless it was dead to begain with.

As for the lions and elephant note a PRIDE of lions will take on an elephant, but ONE lion will NOT take on an elephant.

A wolverine is like 5% of the weight of a moose. Now you imagine a housecat at 10 pounds being able to take a sick 150 pound man. It doens’t matter how tough the cat is, it’s simply outweighed. Wolverines are mean but saying a wolverine can beat a moose is like those Kung Fu movies where the 90 pound guy beats up a 250 pound thug. He can get in a few licks but in the end the weight can’t be overcome.

[RaftPeople]

I googled and found the following (can’t vouch for the site though):

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Interspecies-Conflict-3754/2008/3/Wolverine-vs-wolf-2.htm

“Despite its smaller size, these mustelids are often considered as the strongest animals in the world for their size; a wolverine can drag carcasses five times its body weight, and kill animals such as moose, and reindeer.”

“Lets consider the wolverine, it’s about the same size as the pitbull, but is much stronger; a wolverine’s claws and bone can crush the bones of a moose and drive away bears, cougars, and multiple wolves from their kill.”

[Gulo_gulo]

I can’t imagine a wolverine taking on a healthy moose but if one were weakened by other predators or on it’s last legs, it shouldn’t be a hard task. I’ve seen footage of a wolverine killing a deer & chasing off a pack of wolves. They’re tough buggers.

From here:

The wolverine is capable of taking large ungulates as live prey (Myrberget 1968, Pulliainen 1968, Magoun 1985), but ungulate presence in the wolverine diet most likely results from scavenging (Hornocker and Hash 1981, Magoun 1985, Gardner 1985, Banci 1987, Copeland 1996). Ungulate use by wolverines at higher latitudes was more prevalent during months associated with migrating caribou (Rangifer tarandus) or local moose populations (Magoun 1985, Gardner 1985).

[chaoticbear]

Well, regardless of the possessive in the title, everyone knows that the plural of “moose” is “meese”, of course.

[lieu]

Thank you, chaoticbear, for this all too rare

‘ed meese’ sighting.

[CalMeacham]

Well, regardless of the possessive in the title, everyone knows that the plural of “moose” is “meese”, of course.

I Hate Meeses to Pieces!

[Jackmannii]

I thought this thread was going to be about U. of Michigan graduates running amok at the Moose lodge.

[Mangetout]

@Ludovic

It surprises me that wolverines are allowed to own moose, let alone killing moose.

It’s more of a partnership, really. The wolverine had better intellectual property lawyers though, and so managed to wangle a deal where the killing moose was billed as a sidekick.

[Gbro]

@MrSquishy

I just can’t imagine what the mechanism of death would be. I’m sure a wolverine’s jaws couldn’t do much damage to the (well-protected with muscle) throat of a moose.

Would the wolverine just scratch the shit out of the moose and wait for it to die of infection?

I don’t think any large predator waits until his prey is declared dead before they begin to feed. They are just worn down to a point where they cannot/don’t fight back.

I once saw a film of a pack of wolves attacking a moose.

There is a I-Max movie on the Arctic Wolf. We saw it at the MN science museum. The film showed the arctic wolves after musk ox. the film showed no ox being taken. I guess we were to assume there was nourishment in trying?
I boo’ed the show at the end as some clapped.
Back when National Geographic Magazine reported true nature, not some form of socially acceptable version that isn’t to hard for some to accept, There was a similar story where a reported was watching the wolf work on a small herd of musk ox with 6 calves. At the end of the story all six calves were taken by the arctic wolves.
Nature is brutal, Why would anyone want to sugar coat nature?

Then there was a wolf display at the local gander mountain store. 3 wolves and a small deer, There wasn’t a hair out of place on that little deer, and the wolves were displayed to look like the neighbors pet dog that just might lick you to death. I asked about this and a store employee said there is a federal regulation prohibiting aggressive mounts of protected species. I do not know if that is true?
But the display should have at least put a tire tread mark over the deer if it wasn’t suppose to depict a wolf kill.

[John_Mace]

@notlikely

I was reading a wikipeida article about the Wolverine and it says

The wolverine is, like most mustelids, remarkably strong for its size. It has been known to kill prey as large as moose, although most typically when these are weakened by winter or caught in snowbanks.

I mean a wolverine is between 50 and 90 pounds, and a female moose is generally over 800 pounds.

I find this hard to believe a wolverine could do much damage to a moose, unless the moose was totally on it’s deathbed to begin with.

What do you think? Is that article off base?

The statement in the article is uncited, so we can’t know if it’s true or not. And given the qualification about “weakened by winter or caught in snowbanks”, I’d say that’s a meaningless claim. A housecat could take a moose that was sufficiently “weakened by winter or caught in snowbanks”.

[BMalion]

@John Mace

The statement in the article is uncited, so we can’t know if it’s true or not. And given the qualification about “weakened by winter or caught in snowbanks”, I’d say that’s a meaningless claim. A housecat could take a moose that was sufficiently “weakened by winter or caught in snowbanks”.

Unless the moose had a machine gun, and a flamethrower.