Two researchers intrigued by the size and shape of the moose’s nose decided to take a closer look, providing the first detailed anatomical analysis of the unconventional snout that hangs over the front lip of Maine’s official state animal.

Among their findings: the enigmatic nose’s structure allows moose to close their nostrils while foraging for aquatic plants.

Lawrence Witmer, a professor of anatomy at Ohio University, has studied the noses of many animals alive and extinct, from the common white-tailed deer to prehistoric creatures like duck-billed dinosaurs.

He said he was surprised by the lack of research on the moose muzzle, so he and graduate student Andy Clifford went to work. Their findings were published last month in the Journal of Zoology in London.

“We know little about the moose nose, despite the fact that they’re common animals in the northern half of the hemisphere,” Witmer said in a telephone interview from his office in Athens, Ohio.

The nose is a prominent feature on the moose, the largest creature in the Maine woods, reaching in excess of 1,000 pounds.

The nasal apparatus, with nostrils up to four inches wide, droops over the moose’s front lips, giving the massive animal an appearance that sets it apart from plant-eating cousins like the white-tailed deer.

As part of their research, Witmer and Clifford examined the heads of moose that were hit and killed by motorists in Canada.

They used hospital equipment to examine the internal anatomy and also dissected the samples to get a closer look at the physical structure, including nerves, cartilage and other components of the proboscis.

The researchers were able to discount the idea that the large size of the nasal cavity had something to do with heat regulation.

They also looked at whether the widely spaced nostrils gave the creatures any special capabilities, such as stereo olfaction. But they weren’t able to make a conclusive determination on that one.

One of their most important findings was that the nose has a mechanism for keeping water out when the moose wades into a pond and plunges underwater to pluck aquatic plants to eat.

“Moose, as it turns out, have a mechanism to close their nostrils,” Witmer said. “It’s part of this crazy nostril apparatus that moose have changed their faces to develop.”

There are fatty pads in the nose that close under water pressure, and there are muscles that assist, they said.

Clifford, who is completing his graduate studies at Brown University, said he and Witmer thought they were onto something new. Instead, they had figured out something zoologists suspected all along.

“They (zoologists) looked at us funny,” Clifford said. “They couldn’t believe it took us so long to figure it out.”

In Maine, wildlife biologist Karen Morris, said she and others had long suspected something of the sort.

“Having never been underwater with a moose, I’ve never observed it, but it doesn’t surprise me,” Morris said from Bangor, where she works for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Far from being deflated by the news, the researchers were pleased that their findings were validated by zookeepers and others who have spent time studying or observing moose, Clifford said.

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Witmer’s Web site: http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/dbms-witmer/

AP-ES-05-05-04 1335EDT