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The nose knows

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The nose knows

Postby wawhitey » 04 23, 2018 •  [Post 1]

So yesterday i was hiking my butt off in some new country. Scouting, hanging cams. Covered 12 or more miles, and 5 or 6 times during the day the wind brought the smell of elk or moose to my nose. Now there is both elk and moose sign up there, and within a half mile of my hike in i heard an elk do their alarmed bark thing. But the rest of tge day i kept picking up that barnyard smell and wondering... am i smelling elk or moose? The two smells are so similar, i just cant tell the difference. Maybe its due to my lack of experience with elk compared to moose. Any of you elk experts honestly think you can tell the difference between elk stink and moose stink? I feel like i should be able to, i spend enough time around moose, but my olfactory senses just dont seem to be refined enough to differentiate between the two.
Real eyes realize real lies
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Re: The nose knows

Postby Swede » 04 23, 2018 •  [Post 2]

I can't tell the difference. I have to see the sign on the ground.
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Re: The nose knows

Postby Lefty » 04 24, 2018 •  [Post 3]

Swede wrote:I can't tell the difference. I have to see the sign on the ground.

Thats where I am. I dont think I ever needed to distinguish the difference. I would think one two or three moose smells woulnt carry the distance. And the difference in nearby habitat I would just make a guess and move on.
Head into the wind until you know.
One thing about being near water you could be picking up beaver castor mounds

I have been tricked in the spring by decomposing leaves: cottonwood and willows
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Re: The nose knows

Postby Swede » 04 24, 2018 •  [Post 4]

I was out in the forest in the summer and thought I was smelling some elk. When I got closer, I determined the smell was from cattle that had moved in through a hole in the fence and were not where they were supposed to be. Moral of the story, is don't trust my nose. I need to see more. I guess this makes me wonder; how many of us could tell the difference if I put some scented earth from elk and some from cattle in a jar? When I took the lid off the jar and let you smell, would you be able to decide which was which? I don't know if I could.
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Re: The nose knows

Postby Tigger » 04 24, 2018 •  [Post 5]

RJ can tell the difference in taste between elk duds and moose duds. I don't believe him though and would like to have someone witness it to be sure. I cannot tell the difference in smell between elk and moose other than moose smell bigger.
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Re: The nose knows

Postby WapitiTalk1 » 04 24, 2018 •  [Post 6]

Tigger wrote:RJ can tell the difference in taste between elk duds and moose duds.


Ssshhhhhh, that's a secret method mister ;). I do think moose and elk smell similar but I oftentimes don't smell moose as quickly as I do elk before I come upon them. Perhaps its because elk, as a general rule, gather/hang in greater numbers and perhaps leave more scent, or, perhaps moose aren't as strong smelling as elk? A rutty bull elk brings elk "smell" to a new level with the whizz sprayed all over his belly, and, his stinky mud coat from rolling around in a whizzed in mud wallow. I guess I honestly don't know how much moose and elk smell alike (or if they have a noticeably different smell if standing side by side when a person can really sniff them down)... good question to ponder though.
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