DOI: 10.5061/dryad.08kprr598
title: Observations of moose behaviour and foraging choices in summer

description: Understanding how the nutritional properties of food resources drive
 foraging choices is important for the management and conservation of
 wildlife populations. For moose (Alces alces), recent experimental and
 observational studies during the winter have shown macronutrient balancing
 between available protein (AP) and highly metabolizable macronutrients
 (total non-structural carbohydrates [TNC] and lipids). Here, we combined
 the use of continuous-recording camera collars with plant nutrient
 analyses and forage availability measurements to obtain a detailed insight
 into the food and nutritional choices of three wild moose in Norway over a
 five-day period in summer. We found that moose derived their macronutrient
 energy primarily from carbohydrates (74.2%), followed by protein (13.1%),
 and lipids (12.7%). Diets were dominated by deciduous tree browse (71%).
 Willows (Salix spp.) were selected for and constituted 51% of the average
 diet. Moose consumed 25 different food items during the study period of
 which nine comprised 95% of the diet. Moose tightly regulated their intake
 of protein to highly metabolizable macronutrients (AP:TNC+lipids). They
 did this by feeding on foods that most closely matched the target
 macronutrient ratio such as Salix spp., or by combining nutritionally
 imbalanced foods (complementary feeding) in a non-random manner that
 minimized deviations from the intake target. The observed patterns of
 macronutrient balancing aligned well with the findings of winter studies.
 Differential feeding on nutritionally balanced downy birch (Betula
 pubescens) leaves versus imbalanced twigs+leaves across moose individuals
 indicated that macronutrient balancing may occur on as fine a scale as
 foraging bites on a single plant species. Utilized forages generally met
 the suggested requirement thresholds for the minerals calcium, phosphorus,
 copper, molybdenum, and magnesium but tended to be low in sodium. Our
 findings offer new insights into the foraging behavior of a model species
 in ungulate nutritional ecology and contribute to informed decision-making
 in wildlife and forest management.
description: Data were collected on the island of Vega (119
 km<sup>2</sup>, 65°40’ N, 11°55’ E) in Nordland County,
 northern Norway, during the period from 1 July 2022 to 5 July 2022. Three
 male moose (ID: 1652,1764, E2808) between 2 and 7 years of age were
 outfitted with camera collars (VERTEX Plus; Vectronic Aerospace GmbH).
 Cameras were programmed to record 25 sec of video every three minutes
 during the study period. The video footage was manually analyzed and
 behaviours quantified as seconds of observation time in each
 video.
description: # Moose behaviour and foraging in summer
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.08kprr598](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.08kprr598) The data contains observations of moose behaviours and foraged plants. Data were collected using camera collars on three male individuals during the period from from 1 July 2022 to 5 July 2022 on the Island of Vega, Norway. # Description of the data and file structure The data is provided as an MS Excel file (*.xlsx), which contains two sheets: 1. Explanations: Provides detailed information of the data columns in sheet 'CollarCamData'. 2. CollarCamData: Contains the video index in rows (n=6597) and the observational data in columns. Rows containing no behavioural data correspond to faulty videos from which no observations could be extracted. Empty cells in the dataset correspond to 'no data'.