Rare video shows mama moose strutting with twin babies in Minnesota national park

A mama moose and her twin babies were spotted wandering a Minnesota national park in a rare video, experts said.

The Voyageurs Wolf Project posted video Tuesday, Sept. 20, of the mama and her two calves trotting through Voyageurs National Park.

“We rarely get videos of moose and even fewer videos of moose with calves! Both calves made it to at least mid-July, which means their odds of surviving are looking alright,” the group said on Twitter.

Hooved-animals have high mortality rates in the first two months of life because they’re very vulnerable to predators and other causes of death.

Typically, moose calves are born in May and have a 34% chance of surviving to 9 months, the group said. Half of calf deaths happen by July, and most calves die in the first 50 days of life.

The twins spotted in the video have made it past the 50-day mark and are approaching 100, experts said.

“The research indicates that ... if calves make it to 100 days, they have pretty good odds of surviving,” the group said.

Dozens of moose roam Voyageurs National Park. Since the late 1990s, the park’s been home to about 50 moose.

Moose can weigh nearly 1,000 pounds and be 6-feet tall in some cases.

The park encompasses more than 218,000 acres of cliffs, rock ridges, wetlands, lakes and forests near the Minnesota-Canada border.

Nearly 250,000 people visited the park in 2021, according to the National Park Service.

This story was originally published September 23, 2022 at 4:02 PM with the headline "Rare video shows mama moose strutting with twin babies in Minnesota national park."