Moose — Stories, Photos, Videos

[Glenn MacGrady]

I was interested in this moose's behavior with what is suspected to have been brain worm, which I had never heard of.

I've seen a fair amount of moose from a canoe in Maine and once in Alaska, but not really too close up. Hence, I have no particularly interesting personal stories or photos about them. But I know some of you all do. So . . . let's hear and see them in this thread.

 

[VernAK]

Moose can be unpredictable but that one may have brain worm. We don't see that parasite here in Alaska....yet. I've been charged by cows with calves and without calves. Fortunately, I've been able to discourage them without having to shoot.

My neighbor bought a very shiny new pickup and had it all polished up nicely. A rutting bull wandered into his yard and saw his reflection in the pickup and attacked his adversary. The bull went all around that truck bashing and digging with his antlers. He even dug the taillights out of the rear side panels and knocked out a couple door windows. When he finally considered himself a victor, the only body panel that wasn't gouged and dented was the roof. Insurance paid out for total loss and he bought it back to drive for several years.

 

[MyKneesHurt]

I saw a bunch when a buddy and I paddled the Allagash, but never very close - maybe 80-90 yards mostly. Same buddy and I saw one in Idaho fishing two years ago.

I also saw a just-happened collision in New Hampshire, driving through this summer; an f-150 had hit a cow. It looked like something had picked the truck up off the road and dropped it again; just absolutely totaled. The cow was stretched out across the lane, from the yellow double line past the white borderline of the lane. I'm not visually keyed to moose (they're scarce in Virginia), and for a second I couldn't figure out what it was. I thought, "what is a horse doing way out here in the 13-mile wilderness?"

 

[Alasgun]

Moose

 

[Robin]

I saw this guy in WCPP, there was no way to avoid getting close to him and he finally turned and ran.

 

[Mihun09]

A number of years ago in a land far far away from here...

I have found they spook easy, run to the forest edge then stop and turn to see if they are being followed.

 

[yknpdlr]

When paddling the Yukon River races, the YRQ and the Y1K, we saw plenty of moose as well as bears (both black and griz) on the river bank. Race officials as well as local folk told us to be more afraid of moose than of bears. Whan a bear takes an interest in you, unless a cub is involved, it most likely is only interested in the food you may or may not be carrying. However, when a moose shows an interest in you, it most likely wants to kill you directly.

 

[Robin]

Another view of Memaquay exercising his right to bear arms on the Marshall Lake circuit and a moose enjoying breakfast.

 

[VernAK]

I got close to this bull!

 

[ppine]

Ah moose. Maybe the scariest animal in North American except for polar bears.
They just don't have much fear of people. They are enormous. They protect their young. They get hopped up with hormones.
Hitting a moose with a vehicle can be really bad not just because of their size. They are so tall they can come right in through the windshield.

We used to see them pretty often in Wyoming and Colorado. I always knew someone that had some moose meat. Great to eat.
My favorite moose experience was on a pack trip in the Absaroka Range of WY the range to the east of Yellowstone NP. Two couples and 10 horses. The second morning, right after breakfast, a cow and her calf walked right through our camp within 5 feet of the camp fire to go down to the Shoshone River for a drink. About 20 minutes later here they came again. They knew we were there, but it made no impression on them what so ever. We gave way both times. I love moose.

 

[Black_Fly]

Grizzler bears is purdy fearsome, but moose are up there. If you try to scare them off a haystack with a vehicle horn, bring enough vehicle! Here’s one swimming across a lake in Quetico. Swam right across our path. Not a great camera.

 

[Pseudonym]

All my canoe-based moose sightings have been in Maine (which has more to do with the homogeneity of my trips than the disbursement of the species) but they tend to follow a similar pattern: We notice a moose far down river, try to be quiet and imagine ourselves as far more stealthy than we really are. The moose goes about his or her moose business until we get nearly within the range of a good photo when the moose lifts its head for a final inspection of our nuisance and takes off in a trot for the tree line. The result is invariably a blurry photo that's not quite worth sharing. I concur with @Mihun09 that it seems the moose will often look back one last time before their final exit. I've always considered this final glance a taunt regarding my failings as a photographer.

 

[memaquay]

Lol, hard to tell who the moose or human is in those shots. Every moose I have seen (hundreds outside of hunting season) have always turned tail and run. Brain worm has hit Northern Ontario, as the deer move further north, they bring it with them, and biologists are worried. Global warming is bringing a bunch of stuff north.

 

[wjmc]

A most curious cow.

Some years ago, paddling on the upper Thoa River in the south central NWT. I had seen a number of moose in this infrequently travelled area, some a little wary, some vaguely truculent. Then I paddled past a point in a small expansion of the river, and spotted this cow moose dozing in a grassy area. I quickly grabbed the camera, hoping to get a picture before she disappeared into the brush. But she didn't disappear - in fact she didn't even stand up.



I bobbed around, about 20 yards away, for several minutes, while she lay there calmly looking at me. Eventually, she stood up, I took a final picture, then turned the canoe and started paddling towards a beach about 200 yards away where I intended to stop for lunch.




Then, to my surprise, I heard a great splashing behind me. Rather than disappearing in the bush, she was swimming along in my wake, her curiousity about this strange floating object obviously not yet satisfied. She followed me to the beach, landed about 50 yards away, and started slowly strolling towards me. At about 30 yards, she either must have caught my scent (not great, at this stage of the trip) or realized that my shouts were not intended to be welcoming, and turned off into the bush. I elected to eat lunch on the next beach downstream, in case she changed her mind.

The scariest moose encounter I have had was on Sandy Lake on the upper Dubawnt River, when I came around a point on an island and found myself about 20 yards from a cow moose who was standing in knee deep water nursing her calf. I could see the hair on her neck stand up, before I executed a rapid 90 degree turn and accelerated. When I looked back, they were both gone. Thankfully.

-wjmc

 

[snapper]

Years ago in Algonquin, we camped at an island site on Linda Lake (I think it was Linda). Anyway, it became a bit of a joke because every time my wife went to the thunderbox, which overlooked the water, a moose would come out of the woods on the opposite shore and swim towards the island. They'd get pretty close before realizing we were there. Once they knew of our presence, they'd turn around and swim back to the shore; disappearing into the woods. Other than those sightings, the only other moose we saw on that trip was a large bull who was swimming across Linda Lake as we entered into it from the portage.
He was magnificent and it was an incredible sight to watch (and hear) it swimming. You could hear it breathing as it swam to the shore. From there he silently disappeared into the forest. It was amazing how quiet he was, slipping into the dense woods, with that huge rack on his head.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[riverstrider]

When paddling the Yukon River races, the YRQ and the Y1K, we saw plenty of moose as well as bears (both black and griz) on the river bank. Race officials as well as local folk told us to be more afraid of moose than of bears. Whan a bear takes an interest in you, unless a cub is involved, it most likely is only interested in the food you may or may not be carrying. However, when a moose shows an interest in you, it most likely wants to kill you directly.

My first-ever encounter with a moose was also my closest, and one I'd like never to repeat. I was camping with a scout troop in Maine when I was in my late teens, and had gotten up early to do some bird watching off of some forest trails. While searching the canopy for some tiny dang warbler, I heard a snort behind me...I turned around to see this massive moose standing about 30 feet away from me, stamping one of its feet. I have no idea how I didn't hear it approach. Well, it started coming towards me aggressively and I took off into the woods. This started what seemed like a half hour (but was probably closer to 10 minutes or so) of the moose trying to get at me and me trying to keep large trees between me and it and trying not to get lost. As I circled around back towards the trail I had been on, it eventually lost interest in me...maybe it no longer thought I was a threat. Boy, they are pretty agile getting through thick woods! I was scared ____less. I hope not to ever have a moose that interested in me ever again, lol!

Sorry, no pics.

-rs

 

[yellowcanoe]

Ah moose. Maybe the scariest animal in North American except for polar bears.
They just don't have much fear of people. They are enormous. They protect their young. They get hopped up with hormones.
Hitting a moose with a vehicle can be really bad not just because of their size. They are so tall they can come right in through the windshield.

We used to see them pretty often in Wyoming and Colorado. I always knew someone that had some moose meat. Great to eat.
My favorite moose experience was on a pack trip in the Absaroka Range of WY the range to the east of Yellowstone NP. Two couples and 10 horses. The second morning, right after breakfast, a cow and her calf walked right through our camp within 5 feet of the camp fire to go down to the Shoshone River for a drink. About 20 minutes later here they came again. They knew we were there, but it made no impression on them what so ever. We gave way both times. I love moose.

spot on.. Been charged by one in my woods just over my property line. In May they are hungry and cranky and want nothing between them and their newly emerged browse.

We see moose every canoe trip in Northern Maine ( not so much here).
One moose stepped on my boat in camp . What noise and I was wondering if the boat had holed ( it didn't)

 

[Chip]

Here's one from an Alligash trip.


Later on that same Alligash trip we were camped at riverside and awoke to dense fog/river mist. We could hear what we surmised was a moose walking the riverside and, we assume, feeding. By the sound, it was 20 or 30 feet off the bank, but we never actually saw it.

Once I was staying with a friend Maine. There were 7 of us in a house that had one bathroom. In the middle of the night, it sounded like one of us had a severe gastronomic problem, like an exploding butt-hole or something. I wanted to get up and take a pee but the noise continued and I didn't want anything to do with that bathroom. In the morning, I asked about it. Our host laughed and told me he had looked out and seen a moose and two calves. "They eat a lot of roughage and pass a lot of gas."

 

[ppine]

I have only seen one from a canoe, in BWCA.
My faovirte sighting was three moose swimming across the Snake River in Wyoming. They had a wake about the size of a 10 hp motor.