How big is a moose? Height, weight and antlers next to a human

Early morning in a northern marsh. Something dark lifts its head out of the water, and keeps lifting. By the time it stands up on the bank, its shoulders are higher than your head.

How big is a moose? An adult moose stands about 1.5 to 2.1 m (5 to 7 ft) at the shoulder, says the US National Park Service, and is about 2.3 to 3.1 m (7.5 to 10 ft) long. Bulls weigh about 360 to 600 kg (790 to 1,320 lb), and large bulls reach 680 kg (1,500 lb). Below, we put those numbers next to you, a horse, an elk and a bison, and show the working.

How big is a moose?

The moose (Alces alces) is the largest deer. Adults stand 1.5 to 2.1 m (5 to 7 ft) at the shoulder and are 2.3 to 3.1 m (7.5 to 10 ft) long. Bulls weigh 360 to 600 kg (790 to 1,320 lb), cows 270 to 400 kg (600 to 880 lb), and antlers span up to 1.5 m (5 ft).

The height and weight figures come from the National Park Service at Rocky Mountain National Park and the Animal Diversity Web (ADW) at the University of Michigan. ADW notes that males are more than 40% heavier than females. Size also depends a lot on where a moose lives, its age and the season, so every figure here is a range, not one exact number.

How tall is a moose?

Most adult moose stand between 1.5 and 2.1 m (5 and 7 ft) high at the shoulder, according to the National Park Service. The tallest moose reach about 2.3 m (7.5 ft) at the shoulder, says the Animal Diversity Web. With the head raised and antlers on top, a big bull stands taller still.

Shoulder height is the standard measure, because the head moves up and down. Even so, a big moose’s back is higher than most people’s heads. Its long legs help it wade through deep snow and swim in deep water, the Park Service says. For how those long legs and other features help a moose survive, see the adaptations of a moose.

How big is a moose compared to a human?

A tall moose is about 55 cm (22 in) taller at the shoulder than an average US man is to the top of his head. The average man is 175 cm (5 ft 9 in) and 90 kg (199 lb), says the CDC. A typical bull moose weighs as much as 4 to 6½ of those men.

The CDC’s body measurements for US adults aged 20 and over (2021–2023) give men an average of 68.9 in and 199.0 lb, and women 63.5 in (161 cm) and 171.8 lb (78 kg). Here is how a moose compares with them:

• Height: a small adult moose’s shoulder (1.5 m) is just below an average man’s head. A big one (2.1 m) is 35 cm (14 in) above it.
• Weight: 360 kg ÷ 90.3 kg = 4.0 men; 600 kg ÷ 90.3 kg = 6.6 men. A large 680 kg bull is about 7½ men.
• Food: a moose can eat up to 32 kg (70 lb) of food a day, says the Park Service. That is more than a third of an average man’s body weight, in leaves, twigs and water plants, every day.

Want to see more animals lined up against a person? Try our guide to animal sizes compared with a human.

How much does a moose weigh?

A bull moose weighs about 360 to 600 kg (790 to 1,320 lb) and a cow about 270 to 400 kg (600 to 880 lb), says the Animal Diversity Web. Large bulls reach 680 kg (1,500 lb), according to the National Park Service. In Alaska, the heaviest bull ADW reports weighed 771 kg (about 1,700 lb).

Weight swings with age, region and season. Alaska’s wildlife agency, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, gives a range from about 360 kg (800 lb) for a small adult cow to 725 kg (1,600 lb) for a large adult bull. In Maine, the state wildlife department reports that cows aged 3.5 years or more average 379 kg (836 lb), and prime bulls aged 5.5 or more average 502 kg (1,106 lb).

How much does a moose weigh in tons? A typical bull at 360–600 kg is about 0.4 to 0.6 tonnes. A large 680 kg (1,500 lb) bull is about 0.7 tonnes, or three-quarters of a US short ton (2,000 lb).

How big are Alaska moose compared with other moose?

Alaska-Yukon moose are the biggest. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game calls this race the largest of all moose, and ADW gives maximum weights of 771 kg for a bull and 573 kg for a cow. Shiras moose of the Rocky Mountains are the smallest of the four North American subspecies.

So an Alaska bull at the top of its range is about 1.7 times as heavy as the biggest Shiras bulls (771 ÷ 454 = 1.7, using 1,000 lb = 454 kg). Shiras moose are still big: Colorado Parks and Wildlife says bulls can be 2.9 m (9½ ft) long and weigh over 450 kg (1,000 lb), and research by the Park Service in Rocky Mountain National Park gives bulls up to 450 kg and cows up to 340 kg.

Maine’s state wildlife department also records its heaviest hunted bull: 603 kg (1,330 lb) after field dressing, which the department estimates means about 801 kg (1,767 lb) alive. That live weight is an estimate worked back from the dressed weight, not a scale reading.

How long is a moose?

A bull moose is about 2.4 to 3.1 m (8 to 10 ft) long, and a cow about 2.3 to 3.0 m (7.5 to 10 ft), according to the Animal Diversity Web. Maine’s wildlife department puts the total length of a moose at about 2.7 m (9 ft).

That is roughly one and a half times the height of an average man (2.7 ÷ 1.75 = 1.5). Imagine an average man lying down, then a second one lying head to toe beyond him, then cut the second one in half. That is the length of a typical moose, lifted on legs that hold its back above the heads of most people.

How big are moose antlers?

Bull moose antlers can reach about 1.5 m (5 ft) across and weigh up to about 35 kg (77 lb), says the National Park Service. The highest-scoring set ever recorded, verified by the Boone and Crockett Club in 2014, spreads 192 cm (75⅝ in). Moose carry the largest antlers of any mammal.

The Boone and Crockett Club record bull was taken along the Yukon River in Yukon in September 2013 and scored 263⅝ points, the largest antlers on record for the Alaska-Yukon subspecies. Its 192 cm spread is 17 cm wider than an average man is tall. ADW separately lists a widest recorded spread of 2,048 mm (about 6 ft 9 in), without saying which animal it came from, so we treat that figure with care.

Those antlers are not permanent. They grow in spring and are shed in winter every year, says the Animal Diversity Web, and the Park Service says they take three to five months to fully develop. A 35 kg set grown in about 90 to 150 days means adding roughly 0.2 to 0.4 kg (about ½ to 1 lb) of bone a day (35 ÷ 150 = 0.23; 35 ÷ 90 = 0.39). On his head he then carries more than a third of an average man’s weight (35 ÷ 90.3 = 0.39).

Is a moose bigger than a horse?

A big moose is usually taller at the shoulder than most horses. Horses are measured in hands of 4 in (10 cm), and a 15-hand horse is 1.52 m (5 ft) at the withers. A 2.1 m moose would measure almost 21 hands, and the tallest, at 2.3 m, almost 23 hands.

That working comes from Virginia Cooperative Extension, which explains that horses are measured at the withers (the top of the shoulders) and that one hand is 4 in. So 2.1 m = 82.7 in, and 82.7 ÷ 4 = 20.7 hands. Weight is harder to compare, because horses range from ponies (14.2 hands, or 1.47 m, and under, says the same handout) to heavy draft breeds. So we have not given a single horse weight here.

Is a moose bigger than an elk or a bison?

A moose is much bigger than an elk. A bull elk weighs about 318 kg (700 lb) and stands about 1.52 m (5 ft) at the shoulder (NPS Yellowstone). A large bull moose at 680 kg is more than twice that weight. A bull bison, at up to 900 kg (2,000 lb), is heavier than any moose.

The Yellowstone elk figures give cows about 227 kg (500 lb). The working: 680 ÷ 318 = 2.1, so a big bull moose outweighs a bull elk about two to one, and a tall moose’s shoulder can be 58 cm higher (2.1 − 1.52). Yellowstone’s bison page says the bison is the largest land mammal in North America, with cows about 450 kg (1,000 lb). See how much a bison weighs. If you have heard elk and moose called the same thing, that is real: see the myths below.

How big is a moose compared to a car?

A moose is tall enough that a car hitting one usually strikes its long legs, not its body. The heavy body then rolls onto the hood, often collapsing the windshield and roof, according to a CDC report on crashes in Maine. This helps explain why moose crashes injure so many people.

The CDC study looked at crashes with animals reported in Maine from 2000 to 2004. Moose were in 3,400 of them, only 15% of the animal crashes, but caused 803 of the 1,600 injuries (50%) and 14 of the 17 fatal injuries. That works out at roughly one injury for every four moose crashes (803 ÷ 3,400 = 0.24). In Alaska, the Department of Fish and Game reports that about 185 moose a year are killed by vehicles in the Matanuska Valley area alone.

How big is a baby moose?

A newborn moose calf weighs about 16 kg (36 lb) on average, says the Animal Diversity Web, and gains about 1 kg (2.2 lb) a day while nursing. At that rate a calf would weigh about 46 kg (100 lb) after a month, nearly three times its birth weight (16.2 + 30 = 46).

Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game gives a birth weight of about 13 kg (28 lb), so newborns vary. Cows usually have one or two calves in early summer after a pregnancy of about eight months, says the National Park Service. Calves grow up fast in other ways too: National Geographic says they can outrun a person by the time they are five days old.

How fast can such a big animal move?

Faster than you might think. The National Park Service gives moose top speeds of about 56 km/h (35 mph), and the Animal Diversity Web reports a clocked maximum of 56 km/h with sustained speeds of 9.6 km/h. Moose are strong swimmers too, recorded swimming up to 20 km (12 miles) and at up to 9.5 km/h (6 mph).

For comparison, see how other big animals do in our list of the fastest animals in the world.

Why does a moose’s size matter to the forest?

A moose is big enough to reshape its habitat. By browsing, trampling and leaving droppings, moose affect which plants grow, how forests change over time and how nutrients such as nitrogen return to the soil. For this reason the Animal Diversity Web says moose are considered a keystone species.

Size is also their defence, but not a perfect one. ADW lists wolves, brown or grizzly bears, black bears and cougars as major predators, and calves are most at risk. On Isle Royale in Lake Superior, the National Park Service says wolves help stabilise the moose herd by preying on the old, young, injured and ill. Read more about how wolves are built to hunt and the biggest bears that also take moose.

Globally, moose are listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (2016 assessment), though some local populations are in trouble. To see how moose are doing, read are moose endangered. Three things you can do: give moose plenty of room, as the Park Service advises; slow down where moose-crossing signs are posted, especially at dusk; and never feed a moose.

Myths about moose size

Test yourself

So next time you picture a moose, picture the numbers too: a shoulder higher than a grown man’s head, the weight of seven or eight people, and a new set of antlers grown every year, all built from leaves, twigs and water plants. Meet more of the world’s big animals on our animals hub.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. National Park Service, Rocky Mountain National Park. Moose.
2. Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Alces alces.
3. Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Moose (Alces alces) species profile.
4. Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Moose.
5. National Park Service. Moose research in Rocky Mountain National Park.
6. Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Moose.
7. Boone and Crockett Club (27 January 2014). World’s Record Moose Verified by B&C.
8. CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (2006). Injuries from motor-vehicle collisions with moose: Maine, 2000–2004.
9. CDC National Center for Health Statistics. FastStats: body measurements (August 2021–August 2023 data).
10. National Park Service, Yellowstone. Elk.
11. National Park Service, Yellowstone. Bison.
12. Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech. 4-H horse handout: measurement of height, weight and body condition score (4H-887NP).
13. National Geographic. Moose.
14. National Park Service, Isle Royale National Park. Wolves.
15. Hundertmark, K. (2016). Alces alces. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T56003281A22157381.

Sources checked 14 October 2026.