Don’t be caught clueless in the romantic wilderness of Valentine’s this year. Take it from the moose. Mike Runtz, of Carleton’s departmånt of biology, gave a presentation hosted by Wild Oat Café last night about the sex life of moose as part of the Faculty of Science’s Science Café.
The animal’s worldly ways and wisdom can be applied to the more familiar, human dating scene for this month’s day of romance. According to Runtz, male moose, or bulls, possess antlers wrongly thought to be used for defensive reasons. Runtz explained that their purpose is far more disarming. Much like the je ne sais quoi used by today’s man to lure women, the moose uses something more measurable in length — their antlers.
These boney appa r a tus e s can weigh up to 31.75 kg depending on the age and health of the bull, but “no matter what size and what they look like, they give the females a lot of information,” Runtz said. With all that hormonal competition out there, girls may even want to trade off their delicate perfumes for something a little more pungent.
“Chanel No. 5 in the moose world is in their urine,” Runtz said Females c o v e r themselves in the surely-sultry brew and walk around proudly, bellowing at low frequency nasal cow calls, explained Runtz, and the bulls come running.
“Moose tend to be solitary animals,” but sometimes “they group together for dominance reasons . . . using their antlers for communication and intimidation,” Runtz said.
Despite the rush and vigour of youth, people should take a cue from the moose and take it slow, as in no sex on the first date. “Mating doesn’t happen for several days . . . several days of courtship,” Runtz said.
People shouldn’t forget to be safe either. “The cows are choosy because they’re stuck then with their calf for almost a year,” Runtz said. This isn’t the first or last Science Café for Carleton student Colin Sutherland, who is in Runtz’s natural history of Ontario class and said he loves it.
“Runtz’s sense of humor, boundless knowledge and interest in such odd topics made the presentation not only educational but entertaining as well,” Sutherland said. “Although I don’t see myself using urine and grunting noises to attract a significant other, the moose has taught me something important, which is that size matters,” Sutherland said.