"IT'S NOT ONLY PEOPLE WHO CHANGE THEIR WARDROBES IN SPRING"

Moose (North American) - 10 Photos

With Spring weather finally here, am fairly certain there is a lot of change over from Winter clothing to Spring/Summer clothing for people.

Mammals, of course, have to manage the hand their dealt with by Nature. Long-Tailed Weasels & Prairie Hares, for example, change from their Winter whites to Summer beiges dependent on the increasing number of hours of sunlight. It can be somewhat unreliable for camouflage when mammals transition to their browns & beiges and Nature sends late Spring snow to cover the landscape.

And, of course, White-Tailed Deer, Mule Deer & Moose shed their Winter wooly fur which is replaced by their new shiny coats. It's a patchy process with Summer coats gradually showing through. And this is what is happening with this young male Moose. You can see his dark new coat appearing around his shoulders & across his back (Photo #1 through Photo #6). He almost has a saddle pad marking of shiny new fur (Photo #7 through Photo #10). His face, lower back & haunches are still covered in thick dead fur waiting to be shed. His neck is mottled with light old fur & the dark new fur coming in underneath.

He appears to be a teenager, with a long leggy look, probably just having been pushed out by his mother. The fluffy fur could also be the remnants of his last vestiges of his "baby" cold weather coat. 

What a Spring of new firsts for this youngster, a new dark coat, on his own most likely for the first time and sporting a pair of new antler buds.

PHOTO #1

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PHOTO #10