Students learn about fetus from pregnant moose shot on FAA road
Share
Tweet
Kyle Clayton
Mario Benassi dissects the amniotic sac from a moose cow that was shot this week with students at the Haines School.
Haines School elementary school students witnessed the dissection of a male moose fetus, who they named "Charles Duncan," after a pregnant cow was shot outside a home on FAA Road this week.
Wildlife Trooper Colin Nemec did not respond by deadline to questions about why the moose was shot.
Mario Benassi, who leads the Chilkat Forest Investigators twice a week at the school, dissected the amniotic sac.
"It's a male moose calf about half developed. I've never actually looked at a moose embryo before so I'm quite surprised at the structure of the placenta. Outside of that it looks healthy and in really good shape," Benassi said. "This one would have been conceived in September or October. It would have been born around May or June."
Curious students touched the fetus, umbilical cord and various "nodes" in the amniotic sac and asked questions about the animal.
"What if you left it here overnight and tomorrow morning it was gone?!" asked hopeful fourth grader Gwendolyn Kosinski.
Benassi explained the moose's Latin name, the Alces alces andersoni, and described habits specific to the subspecies.
"This particular sub species is interesting because they go back to the same place every year, year after year, generation after generation, to give birth to their calves in the very same spot," Benassi said.
Benassi explained that moose calves are born about the size of Great Danes and are "precocial" and while still dependent on their mother can also survive without them.
"Their babies really don't need their mother," Benassi said. "These are partially precocial because a moose calf partially needs their mother, but they can get up and eat grass right away."
