Behavior/Humans

Have You Ever Drunk ... Moose Milk?

The healing drink

By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor

21st of September 2007, 07:43 GMT

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It may already sound weird for you when you hear about people whose diet is based on camel or reindeer or yak milk and the resulting diary products, but what about moose milk? A moose may be familiar to you if you live in a northern area, but more as stew and barbecue, not in your banana shake.

In fact, people have been attempting to domesticate the world's largest deer for centuries, both for meat and milking, and now they have found

the secret: the smell. You have to smell like a moose.

There is already a small industry in Russia based on moose milk and it is also delivered as a naturist remedy in sanatoriums, according to the BBC.

In order to milk the moose females, the women farmers cover themselves with a scent resembling that of a calf in order to attract the females. They can this way milk them by hand, as the moose believes that a calf is sucking from its udder thanks to the milker's smell (otherwise, they can be aggressive towards the humans).

The moose females are called from the nearby forest in Kostroma region by playing the sound of a moose calf on loudspeakers and 15 female moose come to the farm two times daily to be milked during the four months of the year when moose raise their calves. The cows spend the rest of the day in the wild but are tracked by radio collars.

"In May when the female moose give birth we get close to them, then later on, when the baby moose are taken from them, we smell like the baby moose and she then sees me as her child, that's why she lets me milk her." said Ekaterina Yegorskaya, one of the farmers.

Moose have been especially investigated for this purpose in the former Soviet Union, Russian researchers searching for the unique healing benefits of this milk for decades, with one report stating that "it is advisable that moose's milk be used in combined therapy and for prevention of gastroenterological diseases in children".

Natalya Yuskevich, head doctor at the Ivan Susanin Sanatorium, told the BBC she agrees with the idea.

"It's just like cow milk, but (it) has much more fat and more protein. We use it to treat gastrointestinal diseases like stomach ulcers." said Yuskevich.

Now we will wait till some team starts milking seals and whales. I have heard their milk is extremely rich in fats... So, pay attention to your waistline!...

TAGS:

milk | moose | fat | protein

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