h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As my father used to go hunting for moose quite frequently when I was a kid, I've seen a few of them up close. And, with no disrespect to the art group for their illustration, but I would personally call the animal pictured a reindeer instead of a moose.

Good article, though. Thouroughly enjoyed reading it.

Q: If you say 'one goose' but 'many geese', would you say 'one moose' but 'many meese'?

Thank you, very much.

Um... I don't think that the whole "meese" thing works. Though it would make more sense than saying "many moose". Why, oh WHY is the English language to screwed up???

Shanana

PS. I had nothing to do with the lame-o art design!! I agree with your assessment that the picture depicts a reindeer. Ah well. What can you do??

PPS. Where are you from, that your father used to hunt moose quite often?

I originate from Sweden, and we do have our fair share of moose there as well. Thats how my fathere got to hunt every now and then. Moose hunting season in Sweden is usually just a couple of months in the end of the year, to give the new born calves (don't know if that's the correct term, but still) a chance to grow a bit so they can manage themselves.

Sometimes I'm not sure if the whole moose concept is the same all over the world, because in some areas the moose we have in Sweden are called elk and the moose is more of a deer kind of thing. Anyways.. Let's not go into that discussion.

Yeah. Swedish "moose" are always called elk here, but that creates mass confusion, as well, as the elk here are more like reindeer, with less hair.

I think N. American moose have different antlers than elk. I'm not certain, though. What say ye??

Shanana

I would like to say that the big animal we call "älg" in Swedish, which is commonly translated to "moose" is in deed very much alike to the moose you have in Alaska. At least I would think so after seeing and comparing pictures of the two.

The absolut_alg Home page located on the "home" part of the "swedish" domain swipnet (if you can decipher that URL and the moderators leaves if there) is a good web page when it comes to moose information. Worth a look. I found it after the little discussion from yesterday.

You looked up information because of *me*? I feel so special!!!! Well, honestly, I'm not a hunter, nor am I into moose, per se, but it's just a topic that I had some knowledge on, so I put it in the guide, as there were no entries on the subject. I love them, but I had no idea about any type of knowledge ofthe creature before I moved to Alaska. ::eg:: I'm pathetic.

Shanana

Of course I found the information because of you. After all, this discussion spread to my whole department at work, and we were all trying to figure out if an elk was an elk or if it was a moose, or the other way around. Did you get that URL, by the way. Now that I've just read it myself, I found it pretty cryptical. If you didn't get there, I'll try to fidn another way of getting it posted for you. That is if you want to have a look at it.

The reason for the entry epitomises (sp?) the Guide purpose. At least for me it does. A willingness to share information with others. Personally, I'm to lazy to go about doing any actual research for any guide entries, although I've contributed to some of them by posting in Talking Point forums, the community entries.

Where do you work that everyone would be interested in such a topic? That's cool... and yet... creepy, at the same time. No, the URL didn't come out, though I would like to see it.

Bizzarre as it seems, I'm rather interested in the difference between the species, though I frankly don't give a darn about biology. I'm into the earth sciences, myself.

And don't tell anyone.... ::sidelong glance:: But I didn't do any research. I just put down what I knew......

Shanana

I work in a technical helpcentre for IBM. Very interesting place, and things get discussed during the slow afternoons that people have no real interest in at all. But it's great fun. I'll get you a link to the home page for you on my User page.

It's got a moose picture now