Moose Mastication
Moose are ruminants and as such have stomachs which are highly specialized for the microbial fermentation of food that they eat. Without this adaptation, they could not digest their high fiber diet. Mastication of their food, however, is their primary method for the physical breakdown of plant material. By breaking down food into smaller pieces, the surface area increases for microbial digestion.
Moose chew their food twice and the rate at which they chew it varies. Their spring and summer diet which consists of leaves of deciduous browse, aquatic plants, etc. is more digestible than the woody browse they eat during winter due to the relatively small amount of lignin (used in the formation of cell walls) it contains. The more lignin, the more intensely the cud/bolus (food previously eaten) is chewed. The amount of chewing a regurgitated bolus receives can vary from 24 to 107 chews per minute. In the spring, when food is succulent, one study showed that moose chewed food at about 62 chews per bolus, compared with a high of 133 in winter.
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