Meet the Moose Family Natural World

My goal is to follow and film a mother moose and her newborn calf

over the next year.

It's going to be really interesting to see how it grows,

how it learns from its mother, how it avoids danger.

Those mums could kill me whenever they wanted to.

They can kill wolves with their hooves

so they could definitely kill me on my snowshoes!

This is going to be a challenging 12 months, but I'm really excited

to see how this animal survives its first year in the Canadian Rockies.

I need to find a mother moose with a calf.

It's so rare to see newborn calves.

Before she gives birth, an expectant mother heads to the most isolated

and uninviting parts of the forest.

I can't say that I blame her.

Some of North America's largest predators live here

so mothers need to be elusive and super protective of their young.

Finding any moose - let alone one with a newborn -

in this terrain is a daunting challenge.

But after 21 days, I got lucky.

I can't believe I found her.

This calf is only a few days old.

She's pretty sweet.

I think it's a "she".

That mum definitely knows I'm here,

but she seems OK with me hanging around.

That can change at any moment though,

so I'm going to have to be careful and keep my distance.

If I push it or get too close, the mother will turn on me.

I hope she's going to let me stick with them.

Moose populations are declining across North America

at an alarming rate.

One reason is that calves just aren't surviving their first year,

so it's never been more important to learn

what happens in that first year.

The only way to know is to follow a calf every day

for the next 12 months.

No-one has really done this before

so I feel really lucky to have this chance.

And a little nervous, too.

They move so quietly through the woods.

They blend in so well, even though the mother's a thousand pounds.

The calf - it's just born and it's already faster than me in the bush.

I mean, it's amazing.

The rest of the camera team is only here for a few more days.

They'll come and go throughout the year but my job is to stay here

and to really get to know these moose.

This is only going to work if this mother and calf

decide to let me into their world.

And their world is a wilderness that covers

over 11,000 square kilometres.

Jasper National Park -

the largest park in the Canadian Rockies.

Hugo's got a unique challenge and he's uniquely prepared for it.

He doesn't seem to require a coat.

He's able to get up way before the sun gets up,

stays up way after it goes down, so he puts in really long days

tracking animals.

He'll sit watching moose for hours and hours and hours

and it's awe-inspiring.

Maligne Valley is in the centre of Jasper National Park.

It's surrounded by mountains and beautiful alpine.

It's a lifeline of energy and water and wildlife.

And the habitats for moose are focused predominantly along

the bottom, where the drainages are and there's lakes and meadows

and damp areas for willows and shrubbery to grow.

The moose population fluctuates

depending on the presence of predators.

When we've done counts here, we've seen 19 moose at its high

and around ten at its lower population.

To distinguish between the moose in the valley, it's easy,

because the bells on their neck are either longer or shorter,

they have scars, or they're with different size calves.

It's pretty magical being this close to this huge moose

and her baby calf.

I've only been with them for a couple of days now

and what I'm noticing is that this moose is a really good mother.

For a moose calf to survive its first year,

it needs a little bit of luck and a really good mum.

More moose calves are killed by bears than by any other predator

so learning to recognise a bear is a really big lesson.

This little calf has been born into a world that's teeming with life,

from emerald lakes right up to the treetops.

And everywhere I look I see parents tending their young.

SHEEP BLEATS

This calf and this cow are easily identifiable.

The mother has a really distinct scar on her shoulder.

I'm really curious to know what did it.

This calf is timid and super cute

and she seems to be learning all the time.

These young moose can put on two to four pounds a day every day

right up until winter.

She's around two weeks old now

and she's just starting to learn how to eat plants.

I can really see how the mum shows her what to eat.

The mum is passing her bacteria on to the calf

through the saliva she left on those leaves.

When the calf eats the leaves she ingests the bacteria,

which is going to grow in her gut and allow the calf to digest plants.

This mum is really aware

and she doesn't let the calf get very far from her.

I think that mother is really concerned about

keeping that calf safe.

RUMBLE OF THUNDER

LOUD CRASH OF THUNDER

Part of the challenge of being out here every day

is dealing with the different weather

and I am really cold right now but I've got to keep going,

I've got to keep the gear dry and stay with them

because they're out here every day

and they don't mind this cold weather.

Lately, they seem a lot more relaxed with me being here

and I think they are slowly getting used to me,

which is great.

For three weeks, I've been able to find our cow and calf almost every day.

But over the past couple of days, things have changed.

I've been bushwhacking, looking and looking,

and after a lot of time searching, I found the mother.

But I can't see any sign of the calf.

For the past few weeks, that mum and calf have always been together.

So, it's very strange to suddenly find the mother

and see no sign of the calf.

About half of these calves are killed in their first month of life.

So, I'm getting really nervous something's happened.

You know, those females have a lot of things that are hunting them

and hunting their young.

So, it's not easy being mother moose.

There's wolves...

..there's black bears, there's grizzly bears here.

All those animals prey on baby moose.

PANTING

So, this looks like this was done by a grizzly bear.

You can see there's claw marks that are taller than me and these huge...

I mean, imagine the power that cut through this bark.

I mean, that's got to be almost three feet.

You can see it's raked its claws into the bark.

It's sort of a scent territory marking.

I see black bears doing similar things to trees a lot,

but the marks are nowhere near as long.

At this point, I really don't know what to do about our missing calf.

I mean, live in hope, I guess.

So, I'm going to keep looking.

It's been over two weeks since the last time we saw our calf

and there is not a sign of her.

We have looked everywhere, and nothing.

Park warden, all of our contacts, everyone thinks she's gone.

The only meaningful relationship a cow is going to have in her life

is the relationship with her calf.

It's the only other animal in this entire park

she is going to let get close to her.

So, this is going to be really tough on her.

HOWLING

CHIRPING

I am so excited. We just got a call saying that a cow and calf

were spotted right where we've been filming.

The cow apparently has a huge scar on her shoulder, so it's got to be ours.

So, I'm just going to pack up this and then head right over there.

Gosh, I hope it's them!

HOOTING

BIRDSONG

Hey, girl. Where have you been?

It just goes from days of nothing, and then, it's magical.

I can't believe it.

This calf must have been with her mum the whole time.

I bet she was bedded down just off in the distance.

These calves can disappear into their surroundings so well.

It's a survival strategy. And, man, is it effective!

BIRDSONG

BUZZING

She's been waiting a long time to feed on these water plants.

It takes months for these mountain lakes to warm up enough

to provide the mineral-rich plants she craves, but can't get on land.

Some of these water plants have 500 times more sodium than land plants.

And a moose needs sodium for every part of their development.

From growing hair to reproducing.

And they'll go to great lengths to get it.

They'll dive up to 18 feet to get their teeth on this stuff.

There's so much our calf needs to learn to be a moose.

And the only one who can teach her is her mum.

This is a tricky lesson.

She's got to learn it's safe to go in the water

and to swim for the first time.

And then, because all the really good water plants

are at the bottom, she's got to learn how to dive.

This could take her weeks, even a month, to learn.

CHIRPING

Not the most graceful thing I've seen.

But moose are such strong swimmers. She'll get it soon enough.

BUZZING

She's got the hang of it just in time.

These guys really need to feast on

this sodium-rich pondweed while they can.

Moose can store minerals in their body so efficiently

that they only need to load up on essential elements

like sodium once or twice a year.

These aquatic plants will die out in about a month.

Not all the lakes here produce them,

so this one is a magnet for all the moose in the area.

Moose normally keep to their own territory.

Up until now, our cow and calf have had this lake to themselves.

But now they've got company.

Oh, man, their ears are back.

That means our mother moose

and this new cow want nothing to do with each other.

Oh, my gosh, is that another calf?

It looks so tiny compared to our calf.

He can't be more than three or four weeks old.

This little guy is going to have to do a lot of growing up before winter comes.

I wonder how the little calf's life is going to be different to the big calf's?

It's late August and this is only the second calf

I've seen in the entire park.

This is so cool!

There really are personality differences between the calves.

The little calf is kind of... He's a little cheeky,

he's more curious and he's more bold.

And he'll wander off a lot.

I really want to try to follow this little calf

and our original big calf.

I love the chestnut colour of the mum. She's gorgeous!

They're both so relaxed around me.

This is going to be great!

Now that it's fall, I have to be really careful.

The bull moose, who've been up in the mountains for the past couple of months,

are coming down for the mating season.

This is the only time of year the bull moose gather together.

They are spending a lot of time sizing each other up.

I don't blame them. These guys can weigh 1,200 pounds

and reach over two metres at the shoulder.

They are very powerful animals

and at this time of year, they're unpredictable.

Things have gotten so much more intense in the past little while.

It's safer just to take in all the action from out here.

The cows are only just starting to come into heat

and the bulls seem to be getting impatient.

They're charging through the forest, calling out,

thrashing little trees, trying to find a mate.

There's so much going on in the woods right now

that it's really hard to track our two calves.

MOOSE CALLS

(Wow!)

The bulls are going to hang around for a few weeks, but you know what?

The cows are only fertile for one day a month.

And they want to stay away from those bulls until that day.

Because some of these bulls can be really aggressive.

When she's ready to pick a mate,

she'll check out the size of the bull's antlers.

Moose antlers are the fastest-growing bone mass on the planet.

At the peak of summer, they can grow an inch a day.

I wouldn't be surprised if the bulls can hear them growing.

By fall, they can weigh in at 40-50lbs.

But before a cow can be impressed by his rack, a bull has to lure her in.

The rest of the crew say I'm weird, but I actually like the smell

of the oil that the bulls rub on the trees.

It's earthy, musky, maybe a little sweet.

And it comes from special glands just above their eyes.

Each bull leaves his scent behind on the trees he thrashes.

And that smell says a lot about his mood, his status,

even his sexual power.

It's a subtle smell,

but obviously, it's working on our little calf's mum.

MOOSE CALLS

This little calf is fearless.

He's learned so much mimicking his mother the last few months.

And now he's copying a bull.

I hope he keeps his distance.

This is risky. That bull could kill him.

If he tried to mount the little calf, he'd break his back.

And one angry swipe with those antlers would do serious damage.

MOOSE CALLS

In the end, it's the cow who decides who her mate will be.

BIRDSONG

Having been here for so long, doing this day after day,

I spend more time with these guys than anyone else.

It's going to be tougher to keep up with them when winter comes, though.

I hear snow can get as deep as five feet here.

I'll have to deal with extra clothes, snowshoes,

and then there's all the food I'm going to have to carry.

The amount of energy you need snowshoeing with all the gear,

I'm going to be just eating bacon like candy out here.

Anything with calories.

And the moose have it worse.

Now that winter's hit, there's very little for them to eat.

These guys are going to find every last bit of green forage they can.

But soon, all this nutrient-rich stuff will be gone

and they'll be left with a diet of prickly evergreens, even twigs.

Whatever they can get their teeth on.

Even after eating for hours and hours on end,

they're going to lose weight every day for the next five months.

This is going to be tough for our big calf.

But it's going to be even tougher for our little calf.

He's had so little time to build up any fat reserves.

HOWLING

HOWLING

In this winter landscape, all a mother can do

is to show her calf how to find everything possible to eat.

Our little calf is catching on pretty quick.

Hey, little guy.

Wow! Huh!

So, these moose are really attracted to the salt on my car.

The road salt contains potassium, calcium, even magnesium.

That's why the mothers love it so much.

It's like my car is a popsicle.

When they're not licking my car,

it's actually really hard to find our moose in this massive park.

Each mother and calf roam a territory of about five square kilometres.

At their closest, they're about 10km apart.

So, I have a lot of ground to cover to keep track of them.

You'd think following their tracks in the snow would be really easy.

But it is really hard.

You find a fresh track and you just start following it.

You would not believe how often they crisscross each other.

So, when you think you're getting close,

you actually find out that you're still hours behind the moose.

The other big thing is the snowshoes make so much noise

and with all your gear, you know, I have 50-60lbs of stuff with me.

A big tripod over my shoulder.

I mean, they hear me coming from a mile away.

The funny thing is,

if you're walking through the bush following their tracks

and you can actually make eye contact with them,

I find if I talk to them gently and sort of let them know it's me -

it's not a wolf - they immediately relax.

Winter is such an endurance test for moose.

The longer it goes on, the closer they come to starving to death,

and this does happen.

For our little calf who was born so late in the season,

this is going to be a real struggle.

Our little calf is such a fighter, though.

No matter how tough it is for him, he just never gives up.

He just needs to get through five,

maybe six more weeks of this snow and he's home free.

The snow is so deep, despite their long legs, you know,

the snow is still draining her energy.

So, it really seems like every step they take in this snow

is calculated to expend the least bit of energy that they can.

Everything that they do is really planned.

Like, look at that.

The cow has just planted, she's straining her neck,

stretching her neck, eating everything in sight.

And then, when she's cleaned up everything she can reach,

takes a step.

Another step.

And there we go again.

It is just amazing they find enough food to eat here.

They really are twig-eaters.

It's incredible to think that they can eat 8,000-9,000 twigs a day.

You've got that greening of spring

and, er...the green veg that's going to come out.

I haven't seen our little calf and his mum for two days now.

I decided to leave them alone

because they were so high up the mountain.

I don't know what's driving them up

but I've stayed away in case it was me.

I can't go too long without checking on them, though.

So, today, it's going to be a climbing day.

HE PANTS

Oh, my gosh.

Look at those tracks. That's crazy.

Wow! I think I'm on the trails of wolves...

..judging by the tracks.

And they're going exactly the same way I'm going.

I'm about 500 metres from the last known location of the calf.

OK, looks like there might be at least two here.

I'm kind of nervous.

Just because our little calf in this snow, I mean... I don't know...

I think a wolf would...or a pack of wolves would have no problem.

I mean, the mum has...

If the mum protected it, that would be its only hope.

This is such a weird feeling.

I'm kind of half expecting to see

maybe our moose killed any second now.

Or, I don't know what I'm...

I mean, you know, these tracks could...

This could be the first part of a hunt.

If they did kill the moose, it could be kilometres away.

But wow - there's a lot of wolf tracks.

I'm hearing ravens over there.

It could mean it's a kill.

We're really close to where our cow and calf were.

Now that being said, they were still 500 metres away

last time I saw them, which isn't that far, except it was vertical.

Almost vertical, up the hill!

Man!

I've just got to wonder if this is our calf.

OK, I'm going to keep searching.

Oh, no.

Uh-oh.

Uh-oh.

That is moose hair.

Ooh! This isn't good.

This isn't good at all.

HE SIGHS

Man!

Well, I think the only thing to do

is to keep following these wolf tracks and see what happens.

Ooh! This is a brutal climb.

Her tracks are right there.

It's definitely the mother.

And I just saw a calf track back there.

Ah!

Oh!

Come on, guys.

Please have got uphill.

Oh, man...

Ah!

Look at all these broken branches.

There's been an epic chase or battle here.

Broken branches everywhere.

Hair, clumps of hair, tracks.

The wolf tracks converge here.

Oh, my God. Look at that...

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

Oh!

Oh, man. Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Oh.

Oh, poor calf.

BIRD CAWS

This is just unbelievable.

HE SIGHS

You can't help but get attached to these animals.

I've spent so many hours - hundreds and hundreds and hundreds

of hours with this moose and now, to just know it died this way...

And it was so close to making it through the winter.

I mean, a few more weeks now

and it could have been in the clear.

I just hope our cow is doing OK.

It looks like she ran off that way.

BIRD SQUAWKS

BIRDS TWEET

Despite the hard winter, I'm glad to say our first calf has survived.

She's a yearling now and she's big.

She was only about 40lbs when I met her

and now she must weigh well over 400lbs.

Considering that only around 30% of moose calves

survive their first year,

it's a real triumph for our big calf that she's made it to spring.

She's past the tough stuff now.

Food is no longer scarce

and she's had the protection and guidance of her mother

for a whole year.

But things are about to change.

Her mum is pregnant, but before she gives birth,

she will turn on her calf and drive her out.

GROANING

She'll chase off her yearling in order to ensure

the best possible chance for her newborn.

She'll keep shunning and shunning her until the message is clear -

you are not welcome here any more.

GROANING

I guess it's tough love.

The mother's focus has turned to nurturing the next generation.

WHIMPERING

Now our yearling has to head out into the world

and make it on her own.

Despite everything her mother has taught her,

she still has so much left to learn.

I heard that a chestnut-coloured moose was seen

on a small island, five miles up Maligne Lake.

It's got to be our little calf's mum.

I'd never seen another moose that colour in the park.

Hi, little guy.

She has survived so much.

She must be completely exhausted.

And, yet, here she is again, using all her strength

to mother another little calf.

And at a time when moose populations are in such decline,

each calf is precious.

Our feisty little calf showed me just how hard

life could be for a moose born late in the season.

This new calf was born two months before his brother was

last year, which gives him a huge advantage for surviving

that critical first year.

I've been so lucky to experience, first-hand,

the strong bond that develops between a calf and its mother.

She is such a remarkable animal.

I feel better about leaving here now that I know she's had a chance

to be a mother again.

HOWLING