PLANT STUDIES RELATED TO MOOSE NUTRITION A PRELIMINARY REPORT

A pilot study to estimate plant density from distance measurements is presented. One of the tested methods, corrected point distance, was used in combination with a shoot- and bite count technique used to estimate the production and consumption of browse in two stand types (0-17 years and 18-40 years). Pine produced 90-93% of the total browse production. Of pine and the birch species about 0.1-24.6% Of the production was used by moose. About twelve times as much of last year’s growth was eaten in the older stand type compared to the younger one. The total consumption was about eight times higher in the older stand. Of the total amount of browse eaten 65-70% was last year's production. In connection with the study on browse yield and use simulated browsing was used to investigate the morphological changes after removal of different length fractions of long shoots on silver birch. The amount removed and growth site for the treated shrubs affected number and proportions of different kinds of bud development