How Much Does a Moose Weigh?

Written By: Ian @ World Deer

An adult moose typically weighs between about 600 and 1,500 pounds (roughly 270 to 700 kilograms), with bulls generally weighing 840 to 1,500 pounds and cows 440 to 1,080 pounds. Exactly where a moose falls in that range depends on its sex, its age, the season, and — above all — which subspecies it belongs to. The giant Alaska-Yukon moose stands at the top of the scale, while the Shiras moose of the Rocky Mountains is the lightest North American form.

Below we break moose weight down by sex and subspecies, look at how much calves weigh as they grow, and explain why a single bull’s weight can swing by hundreds of pounds over one year.

Average Moose Weight by Sex

Moose are strongly sexually dimorphic — bulls are much heavier than cows.

Adult bulls — commonly cited at about 840 to 1,500 pounds (380 to 700 kg), with most mature bulls across the range falling somewhere near 1,000 pounds
Adult cows — commonly cited at about 440 to 1,080 pounds (200 to 490 kg), with many mature cows in the 700-to-900-pound range

Part of the bulls’ extra weight is antler. A mature bull’s rack can weigh tens of pounds on its own — grown and discarded every single year — and bulls also carry heavier muscle through the neck and shoulders to swing it. For a sense of how that mass is stacked, a big bull can stand up to around 6.5 feet at the shoulder; see our guide to how tall a moose is.

Moose Weight by Subspecies

Moose follow a broad geographic pattern: the farther north the population, the bigger the animals tend to be. North American wildlife agencies commonly recognize four subspecies, and their typical weights differ substantially.

Alaska-Yukon Moose (Alces alces gigas)

The largest moose on Earth. Mature Alaska-Yukon bulls commonly weigh 1,200 to 1,600 pounds, and exceptional individuals have been recorded heavier still. Cows commonly run from about 800 to 1,300 pounds. These are the moose of Alaska, the Yukon, and the western Northwest Territories, and they also carry the widest antlers of any deer alive today.

Western Canada Moose (Alces alces andersoni)

Found from British Columbia across the prairie provinces to Ontario and into parts of the upper Midwest of the United States. Bulls typically weigh roughly 1,000 to 1,400 pounds, cows somewhat less — a genuinely big moose, just a step below the Alaskan giants.

Eastern Moose (Alces alces americana)

The moose of eastern Canada and northern New England, including the large Maine population. Mature bulls commonly weigh about 900 to 1,400 pounds, with cows typically in the 600-to-900-pound range.

Shiras Moose (Alces alces shirasi)

The smallest North American subspecies, found in the Rocky Mountain states — Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado. Shiras bulls typically weigh around 600 to 1,000 pounds and cows around 500 to 800 pounds. Even this “small” moose comfortably outweighs any elk. Eurasian moose, which range from Scandinavia across Russia, broadly overlap these figures, with the biggest animals in eastern Siberia rivaling Alaskan moose.

How Much Does a Baby Moose Weigh?

A newborn moose calf weighs roughly 25 to 35 pounds at birth — about the size of a medium dog. What follows is one of the fastest growth curves in the deer family. Gaining on the order of a pound or two per day through summer, a calf typically reaches 200 to 300 or more pounds by its first autumn.

Growth continues for years after that. Moose generally approach full skeletal size around age four or five, and bulls tend to reach their maximum body and antler weight in middle age, roughly between five and ten years old.

Why a Moose’s Weight Changes Through the Year

A moose’s weight is a moving target. The same bull can weigh dramatically more in early September than in December, for two main reasons:

The rut — during the autumn breeding season, bulls essentially stop eating while they travel, spar, and pursue cows. A rutting bull can lose a substantial share of his body weight — figures around 10 to 20 percent are commonly reported — in a matter of weeks

Winter scarcity — through the snowy months, woody browse is far less nutritious than summer greenery, and both sexes typically lose weight until spring green-up lets them rebuild reserves

Cows face their own seasonal drain: pregnancy through winter and heavy milk production through summer, especially when raising twins. This is why the quality of summer and autumn feeding matters so much — a moose fattening on 40 to 60 pounds of vegetation a day in the warm months is banking the energy that carries it through the lean ones.

How Moose Weight Compares to Other Big Deer

The moose is the heavyweight champion of the deer family, and it isn’t close. A large bull elk — the second-largest deer in North America — typically weighs 700 to 1,100 pounds, meaning a big Alaskan bull moose can weigh half again as much as the biggest elk. Caribou, red deer, and sambar all fall further down the scale.

For a fuller side-by-side look at how moose stack up against elk, caribou, red deer, and the extinct Irish elk, see our moose size comparison guide.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the heaviest moose ever recorded?

The heaviest reliably reported moose have been Alaska-Yukon bulls. A frequently cited record is a bull taken in the Yukon in the 1890s said to have weighed around 1,800 pounds, and modern Alaskan bulls exceeding 1,600 pounds have been documented. Weights at this extreme are hard to verify precisely — very few wild moose are ever put on a scale — so exact record claims should be treated with some caution.