The nutritional target of captive moose in relation to food pellets and browse items.

<p>Pellets provided the moose with 98% of their total intake. The average balance between available protein (% of total dm ingested) and non-protein macronutrients (% of total dm ingested of TNC1+lipids+dNDF, see text for definitions) in the pelleted food ingested per 24h period by adult females (AF), adult males (AM) and calves during the first buffet week of the experiment indicate their preferred nutritional state (large solid square = mean for all AF, small solid squares = mean for each individual AF; large empty diamond = mean for all AM, small empty diamonds = mean for each individual AM; large solid dot = mean for all calves, small solid dots = mean for each individual calf). The mean trajectories of adults and calves are indicated with solid black lines. Dashed black food rails show the composition of the low-protein pellets (L) and high-protein pellets (H). Had individuals chosen to eat only one of L or H, their resulting point would have fallen somewhere along one of these two lines (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0150870#pone.0150870.g001" target="_blank">Fig 1</a>). Dashed grey food rails show the average composition of coarse twigs (C twig), fine twigs (F twig) and bark from three <i>Salix</i> species (<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0150870#pone.0150870.t002" target="_blank">Table 2</a>).