Moose

A man near Allagash, Maine, had a brush with death last month when he encountered a massive bull moose that stared him down before charging at him — and it was all caught on camera.

"This is the closest I've ever been to a live moose and never had been charged before this," he said. "I believe he was so hopped up on testosterone (it's the breeding season) that he didn't really care what I was. He just wanted me away from his cow."


I've seen a fair amount of moose in Maine and Alaska and never had a problem, although I was never really too close and probably never in the middle of a mating routine.

Going out on a three or four day moose hunting trip this weekend, pretty sure nothing like that will happen.

That moose had his ears back which is a sign that he is mad. I would have been backing up slowly from the beginning.

When I was paddling on the Yukon River, my pit crew chatted for a while with local First Nation folks from the Tlingit tribe. They said, that unless a sow and cub felt threatened, a bear is most likely only interested in taking your food. But when a moose shows interest in you, it most likely wants to take your life.

A woman friend of mine who was renting a cabin in the Kenai for a season parked her car across the street when a moose became serious about preventing her from crosing to reach the cabiin. Luckily another car came along and kept his car between her and the moose so she could get safely inside.

Ears back and licking and chewing. You have to learn the signs of animal behavior. Those were serious clues about what was coming. I always try to find a dense stand of trees in a forest for protection around moose.

This bull was rocking his antlers back and forth showing his dominance. It is typical breeding behavior. In the video of hunters calling them in and using canoe paddles to interest them, the rocking is always present.

Experienced bush people fear moose more than any critter in the woods. More than grizzly bears, wolves or lions.

In Ak. I was concerned about getting stomped on the way to my truck in the dark hours of the morning.

Experienced bush people fear moose more than any critter in the woods. More than grizzly bears, wolves or lions.

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This might bee the case in Alaska, but it is certainly not that way in Northern Ontario. We fear moose running out of the ditch at night and smashing head long into our car. This is the only way moose injure or kill people up here. I have lived with moose for a long time, as have all my chums, and this marauding frantic serial killing moose has never appeared up here.

ppine said:

Experienced bush people fear moose more than any critter in the woods. More than grizzly bears, wolves or lions.

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My son lives close to the Yellowstone greater ecosystem. He's an avid flyfisherman and spends a lot of time around grizzly and moose habitat. He tells me that griz don't concern him much but moose convinced him to carry a gun. They're just not a bit afraid of anything, and he has had too many experiences while wading the river of turning around to see that a moose has appeared behind him close enough to touch with his fly. The bears have kept their distance so far.




There seems to be a pattern of habituated moose and dog walkers - but not flyfishers, thankfully.

I was searching for the video footage I recall of a fatal moose attack IIRC near Anchorage, but I think maybe that was pre-internet. It was pretty brutal.

Not moose...


This ain't Disney World.

Time to settle this argument:


Alan

Glenn MacGrady said:

A man near Allagash, Maine, had a brush with death last month when he encountered a massive bull moose that stared him down before charging at him — and it was all caught on camera.

"This is the closest I've ever been to a live moose and never had been charged before this," he said. "I believe he was so hopped up on testosterone (it's the breeding season) that he didn't really care what I was. He just wanted me away from his cow."

Dramatic video shows massive bull moose stare man down before charging at him

A man near Allagash, Maine, had a near brush with death in September when he encountered a massive bull moose, which ultimately charged him.

www.foxnews.com

I've seen a fair amount of moose in Maine and Alaska and never had a problem, although I was never really too close and probably never in the middle of a mating routine.

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I've been charged twice in one year by moose, once on a canoe trip down a river when, unknown to us, a female feeding in the shallows had stashed her calf in the bush on the opposite riverbank, the second time a bull charged us when another tripper's dog started barking at it, all told, I've probably been chased off or been in a standoff with moose over a half dozen times.

Alan Gage said:

Time to settle this argument:

Alan

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Yep. Not afraid of nuthin'.

memaquay said:

This might bee the case in Alaska, but it is certainly not that way in Northern Ontario. We fear moose running out of the ditch at night and smashing head long into our car. This is the only way moose injure or kill people up here. I have lived with moose for a long time, as have all my chums, and this marauding frantic serial killing moose has never appeared up here.

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nope, been charged several times- usually during the rut IN Ontario, specifically in Algonquin park, with an estimated population of 2,700 moose, one of the highest densities in the world, and other parts of Central Ontario, every hunter I know, including in Northern Ontario, are far more worried about moose attacks than bear or wolf attacks combined.
Although this is about Alaska, the basic facts still apply-

I've mentioned this before, but maybe not here. I shared a table in a restaurant in Dillon Montana with a truck driver who was stranded there. His rig was in the shop getting a new radiator, among other things. He had rounded a curve to see a bull moose in the road. Honked his horn expecting the moose to run. It didn't. Instead, it turned to face the truck with its head down. Both moose and truck died.

The Montana branch of UPRR runs through a narrow canyon between Spencer Idaho and Monida Montana. Train crews see moose in there quite often. Several crews have told me about having the same experience as that trucker......only in their case, the train keeps on rolling.

Not afraid of nuthin'.

Alaska and the Yukon have the larger and maybe more aggressive moose. They are fearsome. The Shiras moose in the Lower 48 are not as aggressive. I used to run into them in Wyoming pretty often. The bulls are bad in the fall. The cows are very protective of their calves all summer until they get weaned.

IIn Alaska moose use highways and railroad right of ways to travel on in winter. They are territorial and will challenge cars and even locomotives. My uncle lived on the Kenai Peninsula for years. He had moose yard up at his house in winter. We was late to work plenty of times because he couldn't make it to his truck.

Never been charged, have paddled within feet of cows and calves. Perhaps it is the high rate of hunting up here, moose are basically on the menu at all times. As previously mentioned, could be a correlation between moose attacks and dogs, although my 50 pound Siberia husky chased one of the biggest bulls I have ever seen for about three miles down a bush road. In the end, it is only the two legged animals in the bush that worry me.

memaquay said:

Never been charged, have paddled within feet of cows and calves.

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I think it's because they recognize you aren't a threat.

Alan

ppine said:

Alaska and the Yukon have the larger and maybe more aggressive moose. They are fearsome. The Shiras moose in the Lower 48 are not as aggressive. I used to run into them in Wyoming pretty often. The bulls are bad in the fall. The cows are very protective of their calves all summer until they get weaned.

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Twenty years ago, I woke up to a Moose within my fenced backyard in downtown Jackson, WY. Six foot tall fence with a gate. No idea how it got in. We opened the gate and he left. Ran right down the middle of the street.

Alan Gage said:

I think it's because they recognize you aren't a threat.

Alan

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Boom!

I've been fortunate enough to participate in several lottery hunts in the Matane park. Back in 2005 - 2010 there was a density of 6 per square mile. Part of our responsibilities as hunting party members was to document how many we moose we saw each day. It was about a 5 mile trip from our camp to our assigned territory and we never counted less than 30 - one day was 55. Insane.

I had just finished an evening set and was walking back to the truck, just past legal light and I can kind of make out some large shapes. A few steps closer and I see there are 9 of them surrounding the vehicle. Not much to do but wait and hope they move on.

The next morning I'm dropped off and I start walking down the dirt road, turn the corner and there are 2 bulls crossing it about 50 yards in front of me. The second one was in a mood - destroying a small shrub and then lifting his head and directing his attention towards me. I didn't want to shoot him so I started backing up. This seemed to appease him somewhat. It was... invigorating. I felt quite small.

I shot a bull on a different trip to the park. This time we were drawn for a guided hunt - not typically our thing but you take what you get. This guy was good, though and I learned a few things. We were in an old skidder trail, 5' high regrowth when we encounter a cow lying in the track. Whispering about how to get around her, the bull makes his presence known with a grunt about 100 yards off the trail. The guide called him in - a little pump spray bottle of bull urine in one hand and an old shed in the other. I shot it at 25'. Again, invigorating.

Never been charged, though.