University of Montana and Wildlife Conservation Society Biologist Joel Berger has been studying Yellowstone moose for decades, and he started noticing that moose were hanging out along roads a bit more than in the past. Why? To hide from grizzly bears. "We think they are doing it because they've figured out that the paved road is a bear-free zone where their newborns stand a better chance of survival. Up in Alaska, grizzly bears have been observed killing between 50 and 90 percent of the newborn moose population. We think that the Grand Teton moose have figured out a way to use humans as shields for their babies." says Dr. Berger. These complex interactions of people, predators, and prey documented by Berger and others fundamentally question the extent to where animals are found and how they behave is independent of even subtle human influences. Read more about Joel Berger and his work in the New York Times. The study was recently published in Biology Letters.
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When I saw the question in the title, I thought the answer would be this. How wrong I was!
I'm afraid I have to answer your lead question with a strong NO, DEFINITELY NOT! At least not if the road in question has any motor vehicle traffic.
A moose on the roadside is very likely to, indeed, want to cross the road. Their faculties of judging time to impact the approaching car are not quite as well-developed as those of some other pedestrians, and the result is all too often a thousand pounds of mass falling through the windscreen onto the lap of the driver and front passenger. The results are likely to be not pretty.
Other than that, yes, a moose is a magnificent creature to meet.
Their faculties of judging time to impact the approaching car are not quite as well-developed as those of some other pedestrians, and the result is all too often a thousand pounds of mass falling through the windscreen onto the lap of the driver and front passenger.
The authors found that the frequencies of allergic and IgE-associated allergic disease and sensitization were similar in the children who had received probiotic and those whoâd gotten placebo. Although there appeared to be a preventive effect at age 2, there was none noted at age 5. Interestingly, in babies born by cesarean section, the researchers found less IgE-associated allergic disease in those who had received the probiotic.