Where Do Moose Live? Moose Range in North America and Europe

Moose habitat: the northern forest

The moose is above all an animal of the boreal forest, or taiga, the great belt of spruce, fir, pine, birch and aspen that rings the top of the world. It also lives in cool mixed forests farther south and in mountain valleys in the Rocky Mountains.

Within these forests, moose look for a few key things:

• Young growth to eat. Areas recovering from fires, logging, floods or storms grow dense willow, birch and aspen, the moose’s favorite food.
• Older forest for shelter. Mature trees provide cover from predators, shade in summer and shallower snow in winter.
• Water. Lakes, ponds, bogs and slow rivers supply water plants rich in sodium and a place to cool off. Many moose spend summer near wetlands, and they are strong swimmers, as explained in can moose swim?
• Calving sites. Cows often give birth on islands, peninsulas or in thick cover near water.

Many moose move between seasonal ranges, shifting from summer wetlands and uplands to sheltered river valleys and willow flats in winter. Some travel only a few kilometers, while others in Alaska and northern Europe migrate much farther.

Where moose live in North America

Canada holds the largest share. Moose occur from the Atlantic provinces and Quebec to British Columbia and north into the Yukon and Northwest Territories. They are absent from Prince Edward Island, Vancouver Island and the Arctic islands.

In the United States, Alaska has far more moose than any other state. In the lower 48, moose are mostly found near the Canadian border, but they extend south along the Rocky Mountains. The southernmost natural population is in northern Utah, and moose released in Colorado in 1978 have grown to more than 2,000 animals. See animals of Alaska for the state’s other large mammals.

Moose in Newfoundland: an introduction

Moose are not native to the island of Newfoundland. A pair was released in 1878 and four more animals in 1904, and with plenty of food and few predators they multiplied quickly. Newfoundland now has well over 100,000 moose, one of the densest populations anywhere, and they have had a strong effect on the island’s forests.

Where moose live in Europe and Asia

In Europe the moose is called the elk. Its strongholds are in the north and east:

These figures are rough estimates that change with hunting quotas, winters and counts. Smaller numbers live in Belarus, northern Ukraine and the southern Czech Republic, and young moose from Poland and the Czech Republic sometimes wander into Germany and Austria.

Farther east, moose range across Siberia to the Pacific coast and Kamchatka, and south into northern Mongolia, northern Kazakhstan and northeast China.

Where moose used to live

Moose once lived much farther south and west. After the last Ice Age they ranged across most of Europe, including Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland, but hunting and forest clearance pushed them back over many centuries. They disappeared from France soon after the time of Charlemagne, from Switzerland by about the year 1000 and from much of Central Europe by the 1600s and 1700s. In eastern North America, overhunting and forest loss wiped them out from much of New England, New York and Pennsylvania by the 1800s.

Some of that range has been regained. Moose spread back into Massachusetts, Vermont and New York during the 20th century, were reintroduced in Poland’s Kampinos National Park in 1951, and a small herd has lived in Denmark’s Lille Vildmose since animals from Sweden were released there in 2016 and 2017.

What limits where moose can live

Temperature is the biggest limit. Moose have a thick, insulating coat, cannot sweat and produce a lot of heat while digesting their food. Long periods above about 27 °C (81 °F) are too hot for them, which is why they are confined to the north and to high, cool mountains. Heat stress may be one reason moose numbers have fallen at the southern edge of their range, such as in Minnesota and parts of New England.

In the far north, the limits are food and snow. Beyond the last willow thickets there is too little to eat, and snow deeper than about 70 cm (28 in) for long periods makes it hard for moose to move and feed. Moose also share much of their range with the smaller wapiti in western North America; the two are compared in moose vs elk.