Wood knocks? or Tongue Pops?

[Kiwakwe]

On 11/10/2024 at 4:33 PM, Trogluddite said:

Kiwakwe,

 

Great work by Hiflier and you.  Listening to Hiflier's recording, is there any way to rule out / rule in a moose knocking its rack against something?  Asking for my own education.

Well, not really but it was May so I'd have thought they'd be growing a new set then. The other thing, and you can hear it in the recordings is the crispness of the knock/tongue pop? sound. I've seen plenty of moose, been sent up into trees and clumsily stampeded out of alder thickets but have never seen them knock antlers to discern that sound. Pure speculation, but I gather that a rack attached to a head and a 1000lb body would provide for some sound deadening and not the crisp pop- closer to the sound of a baseball being hit by hickory.  

Edited November 12 by Kiwakwe

[Trogluddite]

^^

Thanks.  I don't have the wildlife expertise to offer an opinion, although the tone sounded a little more bone / antler like to me.  The closest I have to compare it to would be eastern whitetails and you really wouldn't hear just a single knock as in the recordings.  Also, great point about the season and the lack of antlers at that time.

[Doug]

The "knocks" I have heard in all the areas that I heard them, were 2 different sounds. Most of the time, they sounded like an aluminum bat hitting a chain link fence post. Kind of a metallic sound. The other sound that I didn't here as often sounded like a wood bat hitting a wooden pole. They never sounded like a stick hitting anything. It was sharp and crisp metallic sound or sharp, but hollowish or slightly deadened sound compared to the metallic sound. I always assumed that the metallic sound was made like a one note cough type vocalization and the wooden sound was either an actual wood knock or a vocalization made different from the metallic one.