Kostroma Moose Farm
Encyclopedia
Kostroma Oblast
Kostroma Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kostroma.Major historic towns include Kostroma, Sharya, Nerekhta, Galich, Soligalich, and Makaryev. Textile industries have been developed there since the early 18th century...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, where a herd of moose
Moose
The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...
is kept, primarily for milk production; the farm supplies moose's milk to a nearby sanitorium. It is located near the village of Sumarokovo in Krasnoselsky District
Krasnoselsky District, Kostroma Oblast
Krasnoselsky District is an administrative district , one of the 24 in Kostroma Oblast, Russia....
of Kostroma Oblast, some 25 km east of the city of Kostroma
Kostroma
Kostroma is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian towns, it is located at the confluence of the Volga and Kostroma Rivers...
.
History of the moose domestication work in Russia
As early as 1869, the Russian zoologist and explorer Alexander von MiddendorffAlexander von Middendorff
Alexander Theodor von Middendorff was a Baltic German zoologist and explorer.- Early life :Middendorff's mother Sophia Johanson was an Estonian peasant girl who had been sent to Saint Petersburg for education by her parents. There she met with the future director of the St...
wrote to the Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
's Government:
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
; it was suggested at the time that moose cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
could be efficiently used even in the deep snow. In 1934, the Soviet Government's Nature Reserve Committee ordered creation of moose reserves (zapovedniks)
and moose breeding centers (лосиные питомники). Experimental work, initiated by Petr Alexandrovich Manteufel (Петр Александрович Мантейфель),
took place at a number of locations: in Yakutia, at the Serpukhov
Serpukhov
Serpukhov is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, which is situated at the confluence of the Oka and the Nara Rivers. It is located south from Moscow on the Moscow—Simferopol highway. The Moscow—Tula railway passes through the town. Population: -History:...
Experimental Game Farm, and in the Buzuluksy Bor Nature Reserve (Бузулукский бор) in Orenburg Region.
However, the work was not finished in time for the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
,
and when the war came, the entire idea of cavalry as a combat force was swept away.
After the war, the idea of domesticating the moose was pursued again, with the focus on agricultural use. It was thought that the moose, whose very name means twig eater in an Algonquian language
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
, could provide an ideal way of improving the utilization of
the biomass production potential of the taiga
Taiga
Taiga , also known as the boreal forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests.Taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States and is known as the Northwoods...
of northern and eastern Russia, which are not particularly suitable for either food crop planting or conventional animal husbandry. If the moose could be farmed, they could be provided with feed practically for free, utilizing the by-products of timber harvesting: tree branches and bark.
Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve
Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve is a nature reserve in the Komi Republic, Russia. It currently occupies 7,213 square kilometers and forms the core of the World Heritage Site Virgin Komi Forests.-Location:...
, outside of the settlement of Yaksha
Yaksha, Komi Republic
Yaksha is a settlement in Troitsko-Pechorsky District of the Komi Republic, Russia, located in the upper streams of the Pechora River. Population: 1,218 ; 1,793 ....
in the Komi Republic
Komi Republic
The Komi Republic is a federal subject of Russia .-Geography:The republic is situated to the west of the Ural mountains, in the north-east of the East European Plain...
. Rare photos from that period, one of a moose being ridden and one of a moose pulling a sledge, reproduced from Ye. P. Knorre's 1969 paper, "Behavioural changes in elk in the process of its domestication", can be seen at one of the Kostroma Moose Farm web site's pages http://www.moosefarm.newmail.ru/why-en01.htm.
Research quickly showed that being penned in stalls is not conducive to moose biology; the animals' health would suffer in such conditions, possibly because of the lack of certain nutrients that the free-ranging animals can find in wild plants. Moreover, it would be very expensive to supply captive moose with suitable fodder, as the moose are picky eaters and will not eat branches thicker than some 10 mm (0.4 in) or so.
The life of a farm moose
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
husbandry pursued by the people of the tundra
Tundra
In physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr "uplands," "treeless mountain tract." There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine...
, or the sheep herding of the steppe
Steppe
In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...
s.
During a large part of the year, the animals are allowed to roam free throughout the forest. They usually do not go too far, however, because they know the farm (or the winter camp, as the case may be) as the place to get their favorite foods and as a safe place to give birth to their young.
The Kostroma moose give birth to their young in April or May. A farm-born moose calf is taken from its mother within 2–3 hours after birth and is raised by people. It is first bottle-fed with a milk substitute
Milk substitute
A milk substitute is a liquid that replaces milk in a diet or recipe. This overlaps with but is distinct from the group of milk-like liquids called "milks" because of their similarity to the liquid produced by mammary glands....
, and later fed from a bucket. The resulting imprinting
Imprinting (psychology)
Imprinting is the term used in psychology and ethology to describe any kind of phase-sensitive learning that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior...
effect makes the growing animal attached to people; the steamed oats
OATS
OATS - Open Source Assistive Technology Software - is a source code repository or "forge" for assistive technology software. It was launched in 2006 with the goal to provide a one-stop “shop” for end users, clinicians and open-source developers to promote and develop open source assistive...
will remain one of its favorite foods for the rest of its life.
In winter, the animals spend much time at the woodlots in the nearby forests where trees are being cut, feeding on the byproducts of timber operations. The abundant supply of forest foods, plus daily rations of oats and salted water keep them around the woodlot even without the fence.
It was found early in the course of the moose domestication research that some animals are more attached to the farm than others. Therefore, it is hoped that a multi-generational selection program will result in breeding a domesticated variety of the moose. However, in the conditions of the existing moose farms the prospects of artificial selection are made somewhat difficult by the fact that in the free-range conditions farm moose cow often mate with wild moose bulls.
The Kostroma Farm
where the free-range moose ranching techniques described above are used. A Moose Husbandry Laboratory was created at the research station to coordinate research work conducted at the farm, both by the Kostroma zoologists and by researchers from Moscow and elsewhere.
Unfortunately, in 1985, the Moose Husbandry Laboratory was transferred from the Kostroma Agriculture Research Station to the Kostroma Forestry Research Station, while the moose farm was transferred to the Kostroma Forestry Enterprise ; due to budgetary cuts, the Moose Husbandry Laboratory was closed altogether in 1992. In these conditions, the farm continued to operate more like a petting zoo
Petting zoo
A petting zoo features a combination of domestic animals and some wild species that are docile enough to touch and feed. In addition to independent petting zoos, also called children's farms or petting farms, many general zoos contain a petting zoo...
than a research facility.
It was not until January 2002 that the Moose Husbandry Laboratory was re-created, its parent organization now being called Kostroma Agricultural Research Institute. In 2005, Kostroma Moose Farm was transferred from the forestry enterprise to the Kostroma Oblast Natural Resources Committee. This allowed resumption of the research work on the farm.
The main lines of farm's business are:
- Milk production. The farm's livestock includes around 10-15 milk-producing moose cows. The milk, reported to be rich in vitamins and microelements and to be useful for the treatment of peptic ulcerPeptic ulcerA peptic ulcer, also known as PUD or peptic ulcer disease, is the most common ulcer of an area of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic and thus extremely painful. It is defined as mucosal erosions equal to or greater than 0.5 cm...
s, radiation lesions and some other conditions is supplied to the nearby Ivan Susanin Sanatorium. - Harvesting antler velvet. A bull moose grows a new pair of antlers every summer. Similar to the maralRed DeerThe red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...
farms in New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and SiberiaSiberiaSiberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, moose antlers can be harvested while they are still soft and covered with velvet, which is used for the manufacture of certain pharmaceutical products. - Tourist attraction / novelty value. Although, as at any responsible animal husbandry establishment, access to the farm is strictly controlled by the management, organized tourist groups can visit the facility on tours arranged through the Kostroma Tourism Bureau.
- Potentially, sales of farm-raised young animals to zooZooA zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....
s and safari parkSafari parkA safari park, sometimes known as a wildlife park, is a zoo-like commercial tourist attraction where visitors can drive in their own vehicles or ride in vehicles provided by the facility to observe freely roaming animals...
s, wildlife reintroduction projects in areas that have lost their Alces populations, or to those who want to start new dairy moose farms.
Researchers involved with the project emphasize that although much has been learned about the moose biology, and the techniques for semi-domesticated moose husbandry have been developed, raising animals like this is a not an easy affair. In the interests of the animals themselves, one should not try to enter this business without appropriate expertise, good capitalization, and access to a suitable habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
.
In particular, one is advised not to try to start a moose farm for meat production: the meat output will not cover the costs of production (which could be ten times as high as those of beef
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
production), and, besides, free-range moose are not stupid, and they will not be coming back to the farm where their kin are being slaughtered. A couple of operators in Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl Oblast
Yaroslavl Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , which is located in the Central Federal District, surrounded by Tver, Moscow, Ivanovo, Vladimir, Kostroma, and Vologda Oblasts. This geographic location affords the oblast the advantages of proximity to Moscow and St. Petersburg...
and Nizhny Novgorod oblast
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Nizhny Novgorod. Population: The oblast is crossed by the Volga River. Apart from Nizhny Novgorod's metropolitan area, the biggest city is Arzamas...
s went out of business trying to do this.
The farm maintains the database of all animals that have ever been brought to the farm or born there. As of 2006, it listed 842 moose that have lived on the farm during its history.
Over the first forty years of operation (1963–2003), 770 animals ended their stay at the farm in the following ways:
Kostroma Oblast
Kostroma Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kostroma.Major historic towns include Kostroma, Sharya, Nerekhta, Galich, Soligalich, and Makaryev. Textile industries have been developed there since the early 18th century...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, where a herd of moose
Moose
The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...
is kept, primarily for milk production; the farm supplies moose's milk to a nearby sanitorium. It is located near the village of Sumarokovo in Krasnoselsky District
Krasnoselsky District, Kostroma Oblast
Krasnoselsky District is an administrative district , one of the 24 in Kostroma Oblast, Russia....
of Kostroma Oblast, some 25 km east of the city of Kostroma
Kostroma
Kostroma is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian towns, it is located at the confluence of the Volga and Kostroma Rivers...
.
History of the moose domestication work in Russia
As early as 1869, the Russian zoologist and explorer Alexander von Middendorff
Alexander von Middendorff
Alexander Theodor von Middendorff was a Baltic German zoologist and explorer.- Early life :Middendorff's mother Sophia Johanson was an Estonian peasant girl who had been sent to Saint Petersburg for education by her parents. There she met with the future director of the St...
wrote to the Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
's Government:
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
; it was suggested at the time that moose cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
could be efficiently used even in the deep snow. In 1934, the Soviet Government's Nature Reserve Committee ordered creation of moose reserves (zapovedniks)
and moose breeding centers (лосиные питомники). Experimental work, initiated by Petr Alexandrovich Manteufel (Петр Александрович Мантейфель),
took place at a number of locations: in Yakutia, at the Serpukhov
Serpukhov
Serpukhov is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, which is situated at the confluence of the Oka and the Nara Rivers. It is located south from Moscow on the Moscow—Simferopol highway. The Moscow—Tula railway passes through the town. Population: -History:...
Experimental Game Farm, and in the Buzuluksy Bor Nature Reserve (Бузулукский бор) in Orenburg Region.
However, the work was not finished in time for the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
,
and when the war came, the entire idea of cavalry as a combat force was swept away.
After the war, the idea of domesticating the moose was pursued again, with the focus on agricultural use. It was thought that the moose, whose very name means twig eater in an Algonquian language
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
, could provide an ideal way of improving the utilization of
the biomass production potential of the taiga
Taiga
Taiga , also known as the boreal forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests.Taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States and is known as the Northwoods...
of northern and eastern Russia, which are not particularly suitable for either food crop planting or conventional animal husbandry. If the moose could be farmed, they could be provided with feed practically for free, utilizing the by-products of timber harvesting: tree branches and bark.
Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve
Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve is a nature reserve in the Komi Republic, Russia. It currently occupies 7,213 square kilometers and forms the core of the World Heritage Site Virgin Komi Forests.-Location:...
, outside of the settlement of Yaksha
Yaksha, Komi Republic
Yaksha is a settlement in Troitsko-Pechorsky District of the Komi Republic, Russia, located in the upper streams of the Pechora River. Population: 1,218 ; 1,793 ....
in the Komi Republic
Komi Republic
The Komi Republic is a federal subject of Russia .-Geography:The republic is situated to the west of the Ural mountains, in the north-east of the East European Plain...
. Rare photos from that period, one of a moose being ridden and one of a moose pulling a sledge, reproduced from Ye. P. Knorre's 1969 paper, "Behavioural changes in elk in the process of its domestication", can be seen at one of the Kostroma Moose Farm web site's pages http://www.moosefarm.newmail.ru/why-en01.htm.
Research quickly showed that being penned in stalls is not conducive to moose biology; the animals' health would suffer in such conditions, possibly because of the lack of certain nutrients that the free-ranging animals can find in wild plants. Moreover, it would be very expensive to supply captive moose with suitable fodder, as the moose are picky eaters and will not eat branches thicker than some 10 mm (0.4 in) or so.
The life of a farm moose
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
husbandry pursued by the people of the tundra
Tundra
In physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr "uplands," "treeless mountain tract." There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine...
, or the sheep herding of the steppe
Steppe
In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...
s.
During a large part of the year, the animals are allowed to roam free throughout the forest. They usually do not go too far, however, because they know the farm (or the winter camp, as the case may be) as the place to get their favorite foods and as a safe place to give birth to their young.
The Kostroma moose give birth to their young in April or May. A farm-born moose calf is taken from its mother within 2–3 hours after birth and is raised by people. It is first bottle-fed with a milk substitute
Milk substitute
A milk substitute is a liquid that replaces milk in a diet or recipe. This overlaps with but is distinct from the group of milk-like liquids called "milks" because of their similarity to the liquid produced by mammary glands....
, and later fed from a bucket. The resulting imprinting
Imprinting (psychology)
Imprinting is the term used in psychology and ethology to describe any kind of phase-sensitive learning that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior...
effect makes the growing animal attached to people; the steamed oats
OATS
OATS - Open Source Assistive Technology Software - is a source code repository or "forge" for assistive technology software. It was launched in 2006 with the goal to provide a one-stop “shop” for end users, clinicians and open-source developers to promote and develop open source assistive...
will remain one of its favorite foods for the rest of its life.
In winter, the animals spend much time at the woodlots in the nearby forests where trees are being cut, feeding on the byproducts of timber operations. The abundant supply of forest foods, plus daily rations of oats and salted water keep them around the woodlot even without the fence.
It was found early in the course of the moose domestication research that some animals are more attached to the farm than others. Therefore, it is hoped that a multi-generational selection program will result in breeding a domesticated variety of the moose. However, in the conditions of the existing moose farms the prospects of artificial selection are made somewhat difficult by the fact that in the free-range conditions farm moose cow often mate with wild moose bulls.
The Kostroma Farm
where the free-range moose ranching techniques described above are used. A Moose Husbandry Laboratory was created at the research station to coordinate research work conducted at the farm, both by the Kostroma zoologists and by researchers from Moscow and elsewhere.
Unfortunately, in 1985, the Moose Husbandry Laboratory was transferred from the Kostroma Agriculture Research Station to the Kostroma Forestry Research Station, while the moose farm was transferred to the Kostroma Forestry Enterprise ; due to budgetary cuts, the Moose Husbandry Laboratory was closed altogether in 1992. In these conditions, the farm continued to operate more like a petting zoo
Petting zoo
A petting zoo features a combination of domestic animals and some wild species that are docile enough to touch and feed. In addition to independent petting zoos, also called children's farms or petting farms, many general zoos contain a petting zoo...
than a research facility.
It was not until January 2002 that the Moose Husbandry Laboratory was re-created, its parent organization now being called Kostroma Agricultural Research Institute. In 2005, Kostroma Moose Farm was transferred from the forestry enterprise to the Kostroma Oblast Natural Resources Committee. This allowed resumption of the research work on the farm.
The main lines of farm's business are:
- Milk production. The farm's livestock includes around 10-15 milk-producing moose cows. The milk, reported to be rich in vitamins and microelements and to be useful for the treatment of peptic ulcerPeptic ulcerA peptic ulcer, also known as PUD or peptic ulcer disease, is the most common ulcer of an area of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic and thus extremely painful. It is defined as mucosal erosions equal to or greater than 0.5 cm...
s, radiation lesions and some other conditions is supplied to the nearby Ivan Susanin Sanatorium. - Harvesting antler velvet. A bull moose grows a new pair of antlers every summer. Similar to the maralRed DeerThe red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...
farms in New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and SiberiaSiberiaSiberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, moose antlers can be harvested while they are still soft and covered with velvet, which is used for the manufacture of certain pharmaceutical products. - Tourist attraction / novelty value. Although, as at any responsible animal husbandry establishment, access to the farm is strictly controlled by the management, organized tourist groups can visit the facility on tours arranged through the Kostroma Tourism Bureau.
- Potentially, sales of farm-raised young animals to zooZooA zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....
s and safari parkSafari parkA safari park, sometimes known as a wildlife park, is a zoo-like commercial tourist attraction where visitors can drive in their own vehicles or ride in vehicles provided by the facility to observe freely roaming animals...
s, wildlife reintroduction projects in areas that have lost their Alces populations, or to those who want to start new dairy moose farms.
Researchers involved with the project emphasize that although much has been learned about the moose biology, and the techniques for semi-domesticated moose husbandry have been developed, raising animals like this is a not an easy affair. In the interests of the animals themselves, one should not try to enter this business without appropriate expertise, good capitalization, and access to a suitable habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
.
In particular, one is advised not to try to start a moose farm for meat production: the meat output will not cover the costs of production (which could be ten times as high as those of beef
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
production), and, besides, free-range moose are not stupid, and they will not be coming back to the farm where their kin are being slaughtered. A couple of operators in Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl Oblast
Yaroslavl Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , which is located in the Central Federal District, surrounded by Tver, Moscow, Ivanovo, Vladimir, Kostroma, and Vologda Oblasts. This geographic location affords the oblast the advantages of proximity to Moscow and St. Petersburg...
and Nizhny Novgorod oblast
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Nizhny Novgorod. Population: The oblast is crossed by the Volga River. Apart from Nizhny Novgorod's metropolitan area, the biggest city is Arzamas...
s went out of business trying to do this.
The farm maintains the database of all animals that have ever been brought to the farm or born there. As of 2006, it listed 842 moose that have lived on the farm during its history.
Over the first forty years of operation (1963–2003), 770 animals ended their stay at the farm in the following ways:
Kostroma Oblast
Kostroma Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Kostroma.Major historic towns include Kostroma, Sharya, Nerekhta, Galich, Soligalich, and Makaryev. Textile industries have been developed there since the early 18th century...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, where a herd of moose
Moose
The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...
is kept, primarily for milk production; the farm supplies moose's milk to a nearby sanitorium. It is located near the village of Sumarokovo in Krasnoselsky District
Krasnoselsky District, Kostroma Oblast
Krasnoselsky District is an administrative district , one of the 24 in Kostroma Oblast, Russia....
of Kostroma Oblast, some 25 km east of the city of Kostroma
Kostroma
Kostroma is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian towns, it is located at the confluence of the Volga and Kostroma Rivers...
.
History of the moose domestication work in Russia
As early as 1869, the Russian zoologist and explorer Alexander von Middendorff
Alexander von Middendorff
Alexander Theodor von Middendorff was a Baltic German zoologist and explorer.- Early life :Middendorff's mother Sophia Johanson was an Estonian peasant girl who had been sent to Saint Petersburg for education by her parents. There she met with the future director of the St...
wrote to the Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
's Government:
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
; it was suggested at the time that moose cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
could be efficiently used even in the deep snow. In 1934, the Soviet Government's Nature Reserve Committee ordered creation of moose reserves (zapovedniks)
and moose breeding centers (лосиные питомники). Experimental work, initiated by Petr Alexandrovich Manteufel (Петр Александрович Мантейфель),
took place at a number of locations: in Yakutia, at the Serpukhov
Serpukhov
Serpukhov is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, which is situated at the confluence of the Oka and the Nara Rivers. It is located south from Moscow on the Moscow—Simferopol highway. The Moscow—Tula railway passes through the town. Population: -History:...
Experimental Game Farm, and in the Buzuluksy Bor Nature Reserve (Бузулукский бор) in Orenburg Region.
However, the work was not finished in time for the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
,
and when the war came, the entire idea of cavalry as a combat force was swept away.
After the war, the idea of domesticating the moose was pursued again, with the focus on agricultural use. It was thought that the moose, whose very name means twig eater in an Algonquian language
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
, could provide an ideal way of improving the utilization of
the biomass production potential of the taiga
Taiga
Taiga , also known as the boreal forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests.Taiga is the world's largest terrestrial biome. In North America it covers most of inland Canada and Alaska as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States and is known as the Northwoods...
of northern and eastern Russia, which are not particularly suitable for either food crop planting or conventional animal husbandry. If the moose could be farmed, they could be provided with feed practically for free, utilizing the by-products of timber harvesting: tree branches and bark.
Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve
Pechora-Ilych Nature Reserve is a nature reserve in the Komi Republic, Russia. It currently occupies 7,213 square kilometers and forms the core of the World Heritage Site Virgin Komi Forests.-Location:...
, outside of the settlement of Yaksha
Yaksha, Komi Republic
Yaksha is a settlement in Troitsko-Pechorsky District of the Komi Republic, Russia, located in the upper streams of the Pechora River. Population: 1,218 ; 1,793 ....
in the Komi Republic
Komi Republic
The Komi Republic is a federal subject of Russia .-Geography:The republic is situated to the west of the Ural mountains, in the north-east of the East European Plain...
. Rare photos from that period, one of a moose being ridden and one of a moose pulling a sledge, reproduced from Ye. P. Knorre's 1969 paper, "Behavioural changes in elk in the process of its domestication", can be seen at one of the Kostroma Moose Farm web site's pages http://www.moosefarm.newmail.ru/why-en01.htm.
Research quickly showed that being penned in stalls is not conducive to moose biology; the animals' health would suffer in such conditions, possibly because of the lack of certain nutrients that the free-ranging animals can find in wild plants. Moreover, it would be very expensive to supply captive moose with suitable fodder, as the moose are picky eaters and will not eat branches thicker than some 10 mm (0.4 in) or so.
The life of a farm moose
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
husbandry pursued by the people of the tundra
Tundra
In physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr "uplands," "treeless mountain tract." There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine...
, or the sheep herding of the steppe
Steppe
In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...
s.
During a large part of the year, the animals are allowed to roam free throughout the forest. They usually do not go too far, however, because they know the farm (or the winter camp, as the case may be) as the place to get their favorite foods and as a safe place to give birth to their young.
The Kostroma moose give birth to their young in April or May. A farm-born moose calf is taken from its mother within 2–3 hours after birth and is raised by people. It is first bottle-fed with a milk substitute
Milk substitute
A milk substitute is a liquid that replaces milk in a diet or recipe. This overlaps with but is distinct from the group of milk-like liquids called "milks" because of their similarity to the liquid produced by mammary glands....
, and later fed from a bucket. The resulting imprinting
Imprinting (psychology)
Imprinting is the term used in psychology and ethology to describe any kind of phase-sensitive learning that is rapid and apparently independent of the consequences of behavior...
effect makes the growing animal attached to people; the steamed oats
OATS
OATS - Open Source Assistive Technology Software - is a source code repository or "forge" for assistive technology software. It was launched in 2006 with the goal to provide a one-stop “shop” for end users, clinicians and open-source developers to promote and develop open source assistive...
will remain one of its favorite foods for the rest of its life.
In winter, the animals spend much time at the woodlots in the nearby forests where trees are being cut, feeding on the byproducts of timber operations. The abundant supply of forest foods, plus daily rations of oats and salted water keep them around the woodlot even without the fence.
It was found early in the course of the moose domestication research that some animals are more attached to the farm than others. Therefore, it is hoped that a multi-generational selection program will result in breeding a domesticated variety of the moose. However, in the conditions of the existing moose farms the prospects of artificial selection are made somewhat difficult by the fact that in the free-range conditions farm moose cow often mate with wild moose bulls.
The Kostroma Farm
where the free-range moose ranching techniques described above are used. A Moose Husbandry Laboratory was created at the research station to coordinate research work conducted at the farm, both by the Kostroma zoologists and by researchers from Moscow and elsewhere.
Unfortunately, in 1985, the Moose Husbandry Laboratory was transferred from the Kostroma Agriculture Research Station to the Kostroma Forestry Research Station, while the moose farm was transferred to the Kostroma Forestry Enterprise ; due to budgetary cuts, the Moose Husbandry Laboratory was closed altogether in 1992. In these conditions, the farm continued to operate more like a petting zoo
Petting zoo
A petting zoo features a combination of domestic animals and some wild species that are docile enough to touch and feed. In addition to independent petting zoos, also called children's farms or petting farms, many general zoos contain a petting zoo...
than a research facility.
It was not until January 2002 that the Moose Husbandry Laboratory was re-created, its parent organization now being called Kostroma Agricultural Research Institute. In 2005, Kostroma Moose Farm was transferred from the forestry enterprise to the Kostroma Oblast Natural Resources Committee. This allowed resumption of the research work on the farm.
The main lines of farm's business are:
- Milk production. The farm's livestock includes around 10-15 milk-producing moose cows. The milk, reported to be rich in vitamins and microelements and to be useful for the treatment of peptic ulcerPeptic ulcerA peptic ulcer, also known as PUD or peptic ulcer disease, is the most common ulcer of an area of the gastrointestinal tract that is usually acidic and thus extremely painful. It is defined as mucosal erosions equal to or greater than 0.5 cm...
s, radiation lesions and some other conditions is supplied to the nearby Ivan Susanin Sanatorium. - Harvesting antler velvet. A bull moose grows a new pair of antlers every summer. Similar to the maralRed DeerThe red deer is one of the largest deer species. Depending on taxonomy, the red deer inhabits most of Europe, the Caucasus Mountains region, Asia Minor, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being...
farms in New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and SiberiaSiberiaSiberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, moose antlers can be harvested while they are still soft and covered with velvet, which is used for the manufacture of certain pharmaceutical products. - Tourist attraction / novelty value. Although, as at any responsible animal husbandry establishment, access to the farm is strictly controlled by the management, organized tourist groups can visit the facility on tours arranged through the Kostroma Tourism Bureau.
- Potentially, sales of farm-raised young animals to zooZooA zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....
s and safari parkSafari parkA safari park, sometimes known as a wildlife park, is a zoo-like commercial tourist attraction where visitors can drive in their own vehicles or ride in vehicles provided by the facility to observe freely roaming animals...
s, wildlife reintroduction projects in areas that have lost their Alces populations, or to those who want to start new dairy moose farms.
Researchers involved with the project emphasize that although much has been learned about the moose biology, and the techniques for semi-domesticated moose husbandry have been developed, raising animals like this is a not an easy affair. In the interests of the animals themselves, one should not try to enter this business without appropriate expertise, good capitalization, and access to a suitable habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
.
In particular, one is advised not to try to start a moose farm for meat production: the meat output will not cover the costs of production (which could be ten times as high as those of beef
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
production), and, besides, free-range moose are not stupid, and they will not be coming back to the farm where their kin are being slaughtered. A couple of operators in Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl Oblast
Yaroslavl Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , which is located in the Central Federal District, surrounded by Tver, Moscow, Ivanovo, Vladimir, Kostroma, and Vologda Oblasts. This geographic location affords the oblast the advantages of proximity to Moscow and St. Petersburg...
and Nizhny Novgorod oblast
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast
Nizhny Novgorod Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Nizhny Novgorod. Population: The oblast is crossed by the Volga River. Apart from Nizhny Novgorod's metropolitan area, the biggest city is Arzamas...
s went out of business trying to do this.
The farm maintains the database of all animals that have ever been brought to the farm or born there. As of 2006, it listed 842 moose that have lived on the farm during its history.
Over the first forty years of operation (1963–2003), 770 animals ended their stay at the farm in the following ways:
! Disposition
! Females
! Males
! Total
|-
| Died or disappeared (while under 1 year of age)
| 118
| 139
| 257
|--
| Disappeared or escaped (after 1 year of age)
| 93
| 66
| 159
|--
| Killed by poachers
| 28
| 4
| 32
|--
| Died of a disease or accident
|23
| 12
| 35
|--
| Died of natural causes
| 11
| 0
| 11
|--
| Sold (after 1 year of age)
| 10
| 14
| 24
|--
| Slaughtered (after 1 year of age)
| 4
| 44
| 48
|--
| Sold (under 1 year of age)
| 51
| 66
| 117
|--
| Slaughtered (under 1 year of age)
| 8
| 46
| 54
|--
| Still living on the farm in 2003
| 29
| 4
| 33
|--
| Total over 1963-2003
| 375
| 395
| 770
|--
|}
Over the years, the herd size varied from 4 (in 1965) to 67 (in 1978).
Over the period from 1972 to 1985 (when the milk production statistics are available), the number of milked moose cows on the farm increased
from 3 to 16, the average number over the period being 11. Over those 13 years, 23,864 liters (around 6,000 gallons) of the milk had been produced.
External links
- Kostroma Moose Farm . An unofficial site created by Dr. Alexander Minaev, Senior Scientist at A.N. SevertzovNikolai Alekseevich SevertzovNikolai Alekseevich Severtzov was a Russian explorer and naturalist.On an expedition to the Syr Darya he was captured by bandits and freed after a month. In 1865-68 he explored the Tien Shan and Lake Issyk Kul...
Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of SciencesRussian Academy of SciencesThe Russian Academy of Sciences consists of the national academy of Russia and a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation as well as auxiliary scientific and social units like libraries, publishers and hospitals....
, Moscow, who has conducted research at the farm. All photographs on this page have been taken from that site in November 2006, thanks to the author's (Dr. Minaev's) kind permission. - Russia's elk prove tough to tame (BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, 22 March 2004) - Moose Milking (National Public Radio) (June 28, 2003)
- "Moose Medicine" (Photos; trip report)
- Ivan Susanin Sanatorium (Санаторий имени Ивана Сусанина) (official site)
- A.V. Baranov, V.M. Dzhurovich, N.V. Sokolov. "The Achievements and Issues in Moose Domestication" (Баранов А.В., Джурович В.М., Соколов Н.В., "Достижения и задачи по одомашниванию лося") The Moose Husbandry Laboratory page at the official site of KostromaKostromaKostroma is a historic city and the administrative center of Kostroma Oblast, Russia. A part of the Golden Ring of Russian towns, it is located at the confluence of the Volga and Kostroma Rivers...
Agricultural Research Institute. (Костромской научно-исследовательский институт сельского хозяйства. Лаборатория лосеводства)
Some research articles based on the work at Kostroma Moose Farm:
- Ekaterina M. Bogomolova, Yuriy A. Kurochkin. "The systems organization of the breeding behavior of the moose in its natural habitat" Uspekhi Fiziologicheskikh Nauk. 1995 Oct-Dec;26(4):48-74.
- Ekaterina M. Bogomolova, Yuriy A. Kurochkin. "Parturition activity of moose" Alces Supplement 2: pp. 27–31 (2002)
- Ekaterina M. Bogomolova, Yuriy A. Kurochkin, Alexander N. Minaev. "Home ranges and migrations of the Kostroma farm moose" Alces Supplement 2: pp. 33–36 (2002)
- Ekaterina M. Bogomolova, Yuriy A. Kurochkin, Alexander N. Minaev. "The study of moose behavior on the Kostroma moose farm" Alces Supplement 2: pp. 37–40 (2002)
- Alexander N. Minaev. "Use of telemetry to study behavior of domesticated moose" Alces Supplement 2: pp. 89–92 (2002)