RUSSIA: Russian farm tries to domesticate moose and produce moose milk known for its unique healing powers

Record ID: 756513

  • Title: RUSSIA: Russian farm tries to domesticate moose and produce moose milk known for its unique healing powers
  • Date: 24th September 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) EKATERINA YEGORSKAYA , MILKMAID AT MOOSE FARM, SAYING: "In May when female moose give birth we come close to them when they are giving birth and later, when baby moose are taken from them we smell like the baby moose and she [female moose] then sees me as her child, that's why she lets me milk her. The process of milking for her is simply the process of feeding her baby."
  • Embargoed: 9th October 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Health,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVAD4H82UUDM6Y5IY9T77GHB9TAZ
  • Story Text: Starting at dawn and ending at dusk, the loudspeaker at the Sumarokovskaya moose farm calls female moose to come in for milking. The sound of a horn, followed by the squeaks of baby moose and the names of all farm's female moose wafts through nearby fields and forests.
    There are 15 female moose at the farm although most of the day, they wander in the wild; however, twice a day, they come to the farm for milking.
    In order to keep track of them, a milkmaid uses a self-designed radio locator which shows the whereabouts of the animals, who also have special radio tags on their necks.
    Moose milking takes place for only four months a year - from May, when female moose give birth - to September when they conceive. They produce two to six litres of milk a day. Biologists at the farm have come up with unique method allowing milkmaids to milk female moose regularly.
    "In May, when female moose give birth, we come close to them when they are giving birth and later, when baby moose are taken from them we smell like the baby moose and she [female moose] then sees me as her child, that's why she lets me milk her. The process of milking for her is simply the process of feeding her baby," says Ekaterina Yegorskaya, a milkmaid, after milking her "mother-moose", 4-year-old Yaza.
    Ekaterina, who used to work with cows before, says she cannot imagine her life without moose anymore, though working with them is more complicated and dangerous. A moose will never let a stranger come close and can inflict serious injuries if something angers it.
    Humans have been trying to domesticate the moose for centuries. First - for military purposes in Sweden and later, in the 1930s in the Soviet union, where moose troops were expected to easily cross areas covered with deep snow.
    But WWII interrupted the experiment.
    After the war, the country was in ruins and looking for new ways to feed the population so it turned to moose again. The government was looking for cheap source of meat and milk and officials thought that moose, fed with the branches left over from wood-cutting would be an ideal solution. Several moose farms were established in the post-war years and given the task of turning the moose into a domestic animal. But the experiment failed.
    Moose in captivity started to die because it was too expensive to provide them with the variety of nutritional elements they needed. A moose consumes up to 150 types of leaves, berries, herbs and tree-branches a day and needs up to 5 hectares of wood to survive. Another reason for the failure to domesticate the moose was its solitary nature: unlike reindeers, moose do not live in herds.
    Failing to achieve the goal, many moose farms closed down, others started breeding moose for sale to zoos or parks or for showing tourists. But biologists at the Sumarokovskaya farm, opened in 1963, realised that the only way to keep the moose as a domestic animal is to let them range free for most of the year. All animals at the farm, except for calves, until they are 1-year-old, are free to leave the farm at any time. Most male moose wonder around coming back only during breeding season. Female moose come frequently for milking. But the farms' director Nikolai Grachev is still not sure of the outcome of the experiment.
    "Moose-breeding is an ancient dream of humans. At the sites where ancient people used to live moose bones were found next to mammoth bones. So the moose was a source of meat, food at that time. But ancient man could not domesticate the moose, maybe we will fail as well. But are we are trying and pursuing a new path in agriculture - to create a new domestic animal - the moose,"says farm's director Nikolai Grachev.
    In the past 50 years the farm's specialists found ways to ensure a steady supply of moose milk, which according to the latest research by Russian scientists has unique healing powers.
    "Ivan Susanin" sanatorium situated just few kilometres away from the farm offers a special moose milk healing programme and freeze for the winter up to 500 liters of it.
    "Its structure close to the one of the cow milk, but its much more fat, fat level is 9-10 percent. Also it has more protein than cow milk - 9-10 percent. Also moose milk contains precious amino acids and vitamins.It is used for treating gastro-intestinal diseases, like stomach and duodenum ulcers, gastritis, dysbakteriosis, gastroduodenitis as well as blood diseases," says Natalya Yuskevich, head doctor at "Ivan Susanin" sanatorium.
    The method used at Sumarokovskaya farm is simple. By forging close relations with the moose cows from just a few minutes after birth, and by covering themselves in a calf's scent, a milk maid can fool the female moose into thinking that she is her calf. A human foster mother then also convinces the calf that it is its mother and the calf forges a close relationship and will come when called in the forests by its "mother." Nastya and Yana, students of local veterinary academy, work at the farm and play the role of mothers for twelve 3-month-old moose calves. They walk them, feed them and pat them.
    "We are like mothers for them. We feed them, we talk to them, we walk with them. The most important thing is to talk to them. They remember voices. They come only if they hear a familiar voice, they will not come close to a stranger. You see she listens only to me and tries to eat me now,"
    said Nastya, feeding a carrot to one of her "daughters."

    YOUNG ANIMALS
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