An odd pair of moose are turning heads in Grand Teton National Park, where an apparently orphaned calf apparently thinks a gigantic bull is its new mother.
The bull seems to be fine with it — until the calf tries to start nursing from him.
“The bull wouldn’t really kick it hard, but it would try to nudge it away," wildlife photographer Tim O’Leary told Cowboy State Daily.
During a recent trip to Grand Teton he observed the strange pair, which has been hanging around the Gros Ventre Campground.
Floater Calf
Wildlife Watcher Jonathan Raetzman told Cowboy State Daily he’s also seen the bull-calf combo.
“The calf follows him (the bull) around like a puppy dog,” he said. “The two are never more than a few yards apart, it seems.”
Prominent wildlife photographer Savannah Rose said she’s observed an orphan calf that was “floating around” until it apparently had been weaned off cows’ milk but was still trying to nurse from at least one bull.
Nobody’s sure what happened to the calf’s mother, although Raetzman said he’s certain that it wasn’t the cow moose, outfitted with a research tracking collar, that was recently reported poached and left to rot near Dubois.
Odds Of Survival
Biologist Kevin Monteith told Cowboy State Daily that it’s “fairly strange” for an orphaned calf to bond with a bull instead of trying to find another cow willing to adopt it.
Female animals will sometimes adopt the offspring of other females that were killed. They might also babysit each other’s calves, fawns or cubs.
When a female grizzly was spotted in Yellowstone in 2024 with five cubs in tow, the consensus was that some of the cubs must have been adopted.
Even though it’s highly unusual for a male to adopt an orphan, having an adult to protect and guide it probably increases the moose calf’s odds of survival as winter approaches, said Monteith, a biologist with the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming.
Rose said she’s optimistic about the calf’s chances of making it if it doesn’t really need milk any longer.
Raetzman and O’Leary said they’ve seen the calf eating forage, which is a good sign.
Monteith agreed the calf should be able to feed itself at this point.
“Nutritionally, the calf can function off forage just fine. It just misses out on the learning it could gain from Mum," he said.
‘It’s A Big Calf’
Monteith added he’s impressed with the bull’s massive size.
O’Leary agreed that the bull is one of the larger ones he’s ever seen. But, like Raetzman, he said it’s apparently not yet counted among the Tetons’ moose royalty, “like Hoback, Bondurant, or Fremont.”
“I think it might be one of the same bulls I photographed last year,” O'Leary added.
The bull is gentle with the calf, which clearly favors him over other moose.
“When I was watching them, there was a smaller bull there as well,” he said. “There were times when the bulls would walk ahead a few yards. When the calf would run to catch up, he always went to the bigger bull, not the smaller one. The calf seemed to ‘mother up’ to the bigger bull."
The calf seems to be doing well under the huge bull’s shadow, he said.
“It’s a big calf. It looks to be healthy and in really good shape,” O’Leary said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
