It's Surprising That Mr. Alaska Survived Long Enough...

[alaskanpiper]

Yes, moose are dangerous. She was quite lucky she didn't end up like that poor gentleman with poor judgement at UAA (deceased). Visitors to the state are often cautioned on this right away, as they often think of them as just big deer that will flee if they feel threatened, and as such venture entirely too close in order to get "good pictures", but moose are very defensive of their personal bubble, especially in urban areas and are not afraid to kick your ass if you should be stupid enough to infringe upon it.

They are also completely unpredictable in traffic and kill motorists fairly regularly by surprise dive bombing through the windshield or the top of a sedan. As such they should be treated as a driverless vehicle gone wild when encountered on the road, because when it comes to weight, size, speed, and completely random direction of movement that's exactly what they are. The best course of action is to slowly and safely come to a full stop until they are well clear of the road.

This poor woman however seemed to be entirely ignorant of this animals presence to begin with and got sneak attack molly whomped by a moose who had a total freak out for one reason or another. She is very fortunate that particular animal decided to move on after it's sucker punch rather than hang around and grind her into paste with all four hooves at once.

And yes, bears are deceptively fast and can be on you in seconds from 100 feet away if they so choose. They CAN run UP TO 35 MPH which gives you about 2 or 3 seconds from that distance to deploy a deterrent or firearm if they should decide to charge you. Good to keep this in mind when deciding what a "safe distance" is when encountering them. As far as I am concerned the only "safe distance" is one that is slowly and steadily increasing with my preferred method of recourse IN HAND and ready to implement at a moment's notice.

 

[mso489]

Some years ago, one of the members here who lives up in moose country told a great yarn about how some big sturdy hunting dog of his fended off a male moose in rut that was closing in on him and his wife on a hike. The dog had just the right touch and didn't get injured in any way, protected his people, and warned off the moose in an authoritative manner. What a dog! That moose, despite his ferocity, didn't want that big dog sinking its teeth into his haunches. But it is true, don't mess with moose. Unlike some related species, only male moose have antlers, and massive antlers they are.

 

[alaskanpiper]

Some years ago, one of the members here who lives up in moose country told a great yarn about how some big sturdy hunting dog of his fended off a male moose in rut that was closing in on him and his wife on a hike. The dog had just the right touch and didn't get injured in any way, protected his people, and warned off the moose in an authoritative manner. What a dog! That moose, despite his ferocity, didn't want that big dog sinking its teeth into his haunches. But it is true, don't mess with moose. Unlike some related species, only male moose have antlers, and massive antlers they are.

While male (bull) moose can certainly be dangerous, females (cows) with a calf are by far the more ornery and aggressive threat. They will take on wolf packs to protect those calves, and they will certainly have no second thoughts about stomping you to death if you get close enough to them to be perceived as a threat. And that bubble widens significantly when they have a calf.

Dogs are always a crap shoot when it comes to wild animal encounters. Sometimes they can run animals off, sometimes they can pester them and lead them on a chase right back to you. At the end of the day, I'd rather have a dog than not have one. Most of them are pretty good about at a minimum distracting an animal, or even alerting you to it's presence before you see it on your own, which can often prevent an encounter entirely. But dogs are no replacement for a deterrent or firearm, and I would recommend carrying both if you are trained to safely do so. If you are not trained to safely utilize either, you shouldn't be in bear country at all.

 

[warren]

Those little moose down in America can indeed be dangerous. If you think they're big, check the ones in the Yukon and Alaska, much bigger than the ones in the contiguous states.

Moose can become inurred to humans around the cities and towns. But, while they may seem to be Disney animals most of the time, they are wild animals and, as such, unpredictable.

Sometimes people, during a hard winter in my area, will put out hay for the moose. When there's not the expected hay, the moose become very demanding and belligerent. They've learned where the easy meals are. These people are unwisely turning wild animals into dependents, damned unpredictable dependents. Let nature take its normal course. A moose carcass will feed a lot of wolves, eagles, and other local carnivores.

 

[alaskanpiper]

Those little moose down in America can indeed be dangerous. If you think they're big, check the ones in the Yukon and Alaska, much bigger than the ones in the contiguous states.

Moose can become inurred to humans around the cities and towns. But, while they may seem to be Disney animals most of the time, they are wild animals and, as such, unpredictable.

Sometimes people, during a hard winter in my area, will put out hay for the moose. When there's not the expected hay, the moose become very demanding and belligerent. They've learned where the easy meals are. These people are unwisely turning wild animals into dependents, damned unpredictable dependents. Let nature take its normal course. A moose carcass will feed a lot of wolves, eagles, and other local carnivores.

We had a certain cabin on the Yentna River near ours feeding the goddamn bears. Not surprisingly there has been a decades long epidemic of bears breaking into cabins in the area. Not that they wouldn't have anyway, but it certainly didn't help.

A number of years ago I had to kill one coming up the deck stairs at our cabin like a dog expecting a treat that would not be deterred by either noise or warning shots. Thankfully I was able to fly the meat over to a local lodge owner who made use of it during the winter so it wasn't a total waste, but it wasn't my favorite day.

 

[mingc]

40 years ago, I was deep in a willow thicket in the Brooks Range, probably the largest thicket we were in that summer, when I turned around a blind corner to come face to fact with a resting moose. If you've ever been in an Arctic willow thicket, they're really dense and full of animal trails. When you follow a trail into one, you never know where you'll come out. They're a bit like natural mazes. The moose and I both jumped backwards in surprise and, luckily for me, the moose ran and disappeared into the opposite direction. My partner and I kept going where the moose had gone and we never saw it again. We also never saw another moose that summer. We did make a point, after that, of making loud noises and my partner kept a bell hanging on his back pack.

The only other wildlife we saw were birds, grizzlies from no closer than 1/2 mile, and people. As I learned, wild Alaska has a lot of wild people. And mosquitos. Lots of mosquitos. Lots and lots of mosquitos. Did I say mosquitos? My personal record was 22 in one swot. We left right when horsefly season started, thank goodness.

 

[alaskanpiper]

40 years ago, I was deep in a willow thicket in the Brooks Range, probably the largest thicket we were in that summer, when I turned around a blind corner to come face to fact with a resting moose. If you've ever been in an Arctic willow thicket, they're really dense and full of animal trails. When you follow a trail into one, you never know where you'll come out. They're a bit like natural mazes. The moose and I both jumped backwards in surprise and, luckily for me, the moose ran and disappeared into the opposite direction. My partner and I kept going where the moose had gone and we never saw it again. We also never saw another moose that summer. We did make a point, after that, of making loud noises and my partner kept a bell hanging on his back pack.

The only other wildlife we saw were birds, grizzlies from no closer than 1/2 mile, and people. As I learned, wild Alaska has a lot of wild people. And mosquitos. Lots of mosquitos. Lots and lots of mosquitos. Did I say mosquitos? My personal record was 22 in one swot. We left right when horsefly season started, thank goodness.

They can be downright plague-like on the North Slope. Thankfully there are only a dozen or so days a year where the wind dies down enough for it to get crazy.

 

[mingc]

They can be downright plague-like on the North Slope. Thankfully there are only a dozen or so days a year where the wind dies down enough for it to get crazy.

They really did own the place. I remember we couldn't strip down completely to clean up in the creeks. And exposing our butts to take a dump was a complete adventure. Man!

 

[alaskanpiper]

They really did own the place. I remember we couldn't strip down completely to clean up in the creeks. And exposing our butts to take a dump was a complete adventure. Man!

You're not really living if you're not having the occasional adventurous dump.

 

[BarrelProof]

I was doing some field work a few summers ago on a juvenile salmon research project. I took a glove off for 15 seconds to adjust a DNA collection device and this was the result. The adjustment was a timed 10 second reset, so I’m buffering it by 5 seconds to account for getting the glove off and back on.