For those of you who may ned a little enlightenment in your quest for which side of the moose to gather moss and which end of the moose, a careful study of the following may reveal some very trustworthy research tips. from the NYX's:

Spot the moose with loose habits
TWO biologists from the University of Nevada have risked ridicule by dressing up as a moose. Dr Joel Berger dons the front end of a moose suit, his wife, Carol Cunningham, takes the rear. Thus attired, they move among the moose herds of Wyoming and Alaska, throwing balls of bear dung or snowballs soaked with wolf urine towards the moose. "This is high-tech science," Dr Berger told The New York Times.

The idea was to see if the absence of bear and wolves---traditional enemies of the moose---had altered their behaviour.

They compared moose in Alaska, where bears and wolves still flourish, with those in Wyoming, whence the predators have long since vanished. As expected, the Alaskan moose immediately became alert, and the hair rose on the back of their necks when they scented the missiles flung by the intrepid pair. The Wyoming moose remained indifferent.

This is me, now. The above was written in 1998; guess those Wyoming moose will get a clue pretty soon. There have always been bear and in fact there are always one or two people every season who get mauled by a startled mother bear. And, we've plenty of wolves up in Yellowstone now. Of course, they keep letting the whiney livestock men kill off the ones they claim have killed thier livestock...just murdered a mother and older pups. They were in the way, even though they were on federal land, the rancher who leases it for a tuppence and his cattle took precedence.