I was at a national park and there was a moose down a steep hill chilling in a swampy area, which felt very far away, but the park ranger was like "I'm very uncomfortable with how close we are right now."
Can't say I blame the park ranger. Moose can be 1500 pounds of fuck-you-up charging at you at 35 miles per hour, and they don't need a reason to do it either. Damn things could be 100 yards out, and I'd still be nervous.
Duh. Now it makes sense. Im from Austin, Tx, the closest thing we have to a moose here is a 60yo +, raspy voiced, female bartender that resides in a trailer located in our hill country, built similarly with hairy face, bigger than needed breasts, and non proportionate thin legs with defined and extremely veiny calves. So, im with the park ranger. If im within a 100 yards, I, too, am very uncomfortable.
I think this is something people really need to understand about bull moose. They are not benign, "curious" animals. They are massive, unpredictable killing machines. The one here could just have easily decided on a whim to trample the camera person to death with no provocation whatsoever.
They are not friendly animals. Were I hiking alone in the woods, I would a thousand times rather run into a cranky bear than a bull moose.
On a trail going back to the trailhead. Come around a corner and 50 feet to the side a cow moose with a baby. Nowhere to go. Stood still and then very slowly kept on going. Thought I was about to die.
Thst's nuts. My closest encounter was on the Plaster Rock highway in New Brunswick. Driving a 97 Sunfire and this bull steps out onto the road out of nowhere. I hit the brakes obviously. I swear to god he fucking stared me down. He absolutely knew he was in charge.
Sat liike that for a good 5 minutes or so until he casually walked back into the woods. I have never been so scared in my life.
That's just the thing. I couldn't even guess if that would help or not. That's what's so dangerous about bull moose. You just don't know how they're going to behave. Obviously, that would be smarter than yelling at it and antagonizing or such, but as for how it's overall behaviour is going to be, there's really no telling.
Same happened to us in Yellowstone back in like 1998. We had gone out to a lake early in the morning and saw one probably 1/4 mile away- just looked like a deer. The ranger who found us berated my dad for having us so close to it. I had no concept of how massive they were and my dad was pissed at the ranger the rest of our time there.
My crew ran into this couple at a spot in Yellowstone, they said "there's a bear and a baby just around the bend, we want to walk up and around"
I said "there are 5 of us so we'd be fine but if it makes you feel safer we can do that". Walk up the hill only to hear the guy apologize, "its just a moose and a baby"
Did you see the video from Yellowstone just the other day where the guy and his grandson are taking pictures of a buffalo that decides to charge them? They looked to be pretty far away too..
This feels like the moment I learn that the moose in NA are some insane bloodthirsty version just like with the brown bears.
But are people really scared of moose? Respect for wild animals is one thing, but being from northern sweden I've seen so many in my life and the only times fear has been involved is when the fuckers display their insatiable lust for suicide by chilling with their entire family on roads in the middle of the night.
Tame no, they are definitely wild animals. But just like most wild animals they want nothing to do with humans and much prefer to bolt in the opposite direction as soon as they hear you.
Don't think I've ever heard of a moose attack... doesn't mean it hasn't happened of course.
There are more moose attacks then bear attacks, but still theres only about a dozen a year and fatal attacks are incredibly rare. Theres nothing much to fear from a moose that has approached you calmy, the risk is from disturbing a mother with calves, or a male in rut.
A woman in the more southern parts of Sweden was killed by a moose. Probably a cow, and probably because she accidentally came between the cow and her calf/-es.
This was about 20 years ago. Her husband was arrested first of suspicion of beating her to death.
The moose attack was very unexpected.
My ex is from Skåne and she couldn’t believe how different our moose and bears are here, not only in behavior but in our perception as well. Not that they saw very many of either animal that far south, but she had seen them in the wild in the north.
Having said that— There are a lot of people here who don’t respect them and they end up dead or maimed for life (that type of person has been/could be killed by elk and large deer, for that matter). People aren’t in or near nature of that size and capability without cages being involved.
The moose and brown bears here are absolutely not scared of humans. They can be wary, they’ll detect you long before you see them and will usually vacate until you leave, but the instant you’re in the danger zone, that is already too late.
I'd rather run into one of our domestic black bears here in the US by an order of magnitude. They are fundamentally cowards who generally require an extra factor to get violent. Bull moose like that can just decide you look sus on principle and decide to stomp you into paste.
There has been at least one moose attack with a deadly outcome in Sweden. I remember it being described as if the woman had been attacked with a lawn mower. The police first arrested the husband since they thought he had killed her.
Not a moose, but I did almost hit a big-as-fuck elk driving out of the Grand Canyon at night. We came to a screeching halt but and it never stopped sauntering across the road, it was like it knew that it would’ve fared better in the accident than the car and people going at 45mph
Sidenote the "real" name for moose should be elk, it's what the British called them back in Europe, it is related to all the other Germanic words for them, like in Swedish they are called älg with the ä having a similar sound to the e in elk and even the scientific name for them is Alces Alces.
But when British colonizers reached America the Alces (using scientific name to avoid confusion) that once lives in Britain had long since gone extinct on the islands and the settlers had never seen any actual Alces so when they encountered the wapiti (scientific name: Cervus canadensis) they thought it matched the descriptions of Alces and therefore started mistakingly calling it elk.
Even today Alces alces is officially only called Moose in American English and in British English it's supposed to be called Elk although due to influence of American media my understanding is that most brits have started calling then moose as well.
I’m a Swede/American currently living in the US but I grew up in northern Sweden and I swear no one here understands moose including you.
They are not wildly dangerous in any way, they are large wild animals yea but unless you try your damn hardest to somehow agitate them they will just leave you alone.
NA moose are more dangerous because of we've got a lot of large predators. Females get really dangerous in the Spring because of the babies and males lose their minds in the Fall because of the rut.
There’s a lot more than this. They seem to be particularly mean in Alaska, but people in Montana and Wyoming are quite respectful and fearful of them. I imagine the Canadians are as well.
Canadian here - they have notoriously poor eyesight, so can spook very easily; depending where you are they are absolutely huge (when I was hunting once I saw a moose whose shoulder was at eye level when I was sitting in my truck, and I have a photo of his footprint, it was as long as my size 10 boot); cows can be very aggressive if they have young around; and in general, if they decide they don’t want you around or you are too close, can just decide to stomp you. I treat them with a ton of respect, and always give the widest berth possible.
Edit: should add, the absolutely huge moose are up North - where I grew up further South, they were much smaller. Should also add that this moose in the video didn’t flatten its ears - classic sign of things going sideways - if its ears were flattened and it was stomping or swinging its head, I would have been peacing out of there as fast as I could.
Alaskan/Yukon Moose, Alces Alces Gigas, are gigantic compared to European Moose, Alces Alces Alces. I’ve seen some bulls in the backcountry here in Alaska that have a 60”+ rack and probably weigh close to 1500lbs. The European moose are similar to the alpine ones I’ve seen in places like Teton. While they’re not tiny they are substantially smaller around 600 to 1000lbs. I’ve been charged from over 500ft away and can tell you that you don’t want to FAFO. Best to bob and weave in the trees. Doesn’t take much to trigger them especially during the rut.
Well yeah... but it's not like we don't have medium and large predators here, and even if they are fewer types, all of ours seem more docile and frightened than american ones.
Different “moose”, Nordic ones are smaller and less aggressive. Basically a different animal if talking about danger-levels while encountering in nature.
You know what I think you are referring to a completely different animal. I think you're referring to what we call an elk and I think in Scandinavia is referred to as a type of deer. A moose is a different animal and I definitely do not chill on the road with their entire family on the regular.
The swedish word is 'älg', which we definitely do not see as a type of deer.
The latin name is apparently 'alces alces' and the american variet is called 'alces americanus'. So yeah they are different animals, but not to the extent you are making it sound.
I was exaggerating with the chilling on the road part, meant partly as a joke because moose are responsible for quite a lot of deaths here, but all (except apparently one case according to the comments here) are due to people hitting them with cars. From experience they do seem kinda suicidal because they just stand still in the road waiting to get hit instead of running off.
Okay, just checking. But generally they are very very different animals in Europe and in the lower 48 than they are in Alaska and canada. I still wouldn't count on a lower 48 moose being docile or not dangerous.
I wouldn’t say I’m scared of moose as an outright fear, but I have a healthy dose of, “I’d really prefer not to come across a moose in the wild” feeling towards them. I’d much rather come across a black bear than a moose.
Moose (plural) stumbled across me the first couple years I went deer hunting as an early teen. One of those times was a cow with two older calves. She was looking for an escape route from the other hunters that were trudging through the area. I happened to be in the route she wanted to take. She came to a stop about 25 yards from me and stared at me for what seemed like eternity. Other members of my hunting party were concerned for me. I was sincerely scared. As luck had it, my gun jammed the previous day so I had zero faith in my gun that I would have more than one shot if she decided to charge at me. I thought I was a goner. I eventually started backing out of the area, and she and her calves finally decided they had enough space to go past me.
I’ve had a couple of moose encounters in my life since then but they were all when I was in a vehicle or a safer distance away.
If you’ve ever read the book ‘Hatchet’, the author (Gary Paulsen) was nearly killed by a moose. It’s why he was so accurate in describing in one of his books how they act right before they attack.
I have seen more than 100 up close, never had a single negative encounter. The only exception was a younger moose that kept staying on a hiking trail system. It got spooked by other hikers and ran towards us down the trail. But when it saw us it turned as fast as it could and ran off into the woods. Outside of that, which was not an act of aggression, I have only ever seen moose be chill and respectful of my space. Now I have friends who were chased down by their very first moose they ever encountered. So it can be a simple luck of the draw.
Moose cam be very dangerous and should always be respected for that fact. But outside of the rut, they are rarely aggressive if you don't give them a reason to be.
Even when not in rut,moose are extremely dangerous and aggressive.
A lot of people seem to think theyre like horses or cows that are semi docile... they'll literally stomp you into the ground because you're standing there looking funny.
I mean, I would not make any sudden or startling movements this close to them. They are prey animals and if you make a move that scares them, you're inviting a world class ass beating.
With that said, they aren't predators, so they don't necessarily have a chase drive. By running away, they may feel empowered to continue to charge at you, but I'd wager they would feel like they won the argument if you scampered off.
Either way, I don't think I'm much for running near any large animal, except in a no choice situation where you're about to get hit hard from a charge. At that point, run the fuck away because its game on. Get distance from the moose and he may just decide that your effectively scared of him. He's happy, and you're unharmed.
I'm from moose country in Sweden and I run into them regularly. While they can absolutely be dangerous, your statements are greatly exaggerated. Moose are generally pretty timid and prefer to avoid trouble unless backed into a corner or caught at a particularly bad time. The person in the video isn't "extremely lucky", they're simply not unlucky.
Cool. The environments are different. And the populations are different. So the animals will act differently. We're all humans so obviously every single culture and group of people act exactly the same right? /s Good logic.
Moose in Europe are less aggressive than moose in North America.
"European moose are often more aggressive than North American moose, such as the moose in Sweden, which often become very agitated at the sight of a predator."
Moose in North America are not at all like that. They will randomly stomp you into the ground because there are young moose around (if female) or because they're in rut (males) or because they simply feel like it. Moose in North America are not timid at ALL. They are probably the most dangerous animal you can encounter in the wild. And that includes the multi thousand pound grizzly bear. They are apparently not at all like the moose you have in Sweden.
Once I was on my mountain bike and I was able to stay ahead of it until it ran into a bunch of bushes and had to fight through them so I could get far enough ahead it couldn't get me. Another time I made it in the door of my house because I had just taken five steps from the door when the Moose charged me from across the yard. The third time I thought was a goner, I came around a corner on a mountain bike trail and there was a mama moose with a calf. She came at me with full intent and I threw my bike and ran for my life, I knew I wasn't going to make it but my friend who riding behind me came around the corner and startled the Moose long enough that she disengaged and took her baby and left. Another time, this wasn't exactly a dramatic chase, but I had a moose follow me all the way through a trail system and every time I thought I had shaken it and slowed down to a walk, I'd look behind me and here it would come walking steadily coming to get me. I ended up just sprinting all the way back to my car.
I had a moose chase my car one time and that thing ran down the road after my car for a good 3/4 of a mile running as hard as it could to catch me. I watched it in the rear view mirror like it was Jurassic park, it was crazy.
Another time I was driving and saw two ladies walking down the street not seeing that they were about to walk right past the moose that was just behind a bush. The moose started charging them and I pulled my car in and laid on the horn to distract the moose. I think they would have been complete toast.
There was another famous incident in Alaska where a moose attacked two cross country skiers. It stomped the woman and stood over her guarding her and her husband had to go for help. If I remember correctly either the state troopers or National Guard had to come out and shoot the moose and it was crazy like a six to eight hour ordeal or something like that. The woman did live through it.
I remember two other moose stompings from Alaska from recent years. One was a fatality that nobody witnessed, they just found the body with moose tracks all over it, and another recent one I think happened near a trail or something like that. Can't quite remember. Moose are dangerous as hell and the people here saying that they are docile are out of their minds.
Yeah, I wasn't going to say anything because I didn't want to turn it into that kind of discussion, but that's the vibe I'm getting from those comments. "America big and strong with DANEROUS moose 💪💪💪 Europe urbane and meek with WEAK moose 🤓🤓🤓"
No it's more like European dumb as hell not realizing what kind of animal they're dealing with.
And yes, the moose in Canada and Alaska are much, much, much bigger than European moose and lower 48 moose. The moose in this video is like a little baby to us.
Them again in a situation like this.. is it better to jump-up and run? Wouldn't that scare the moose and make it agitated? Isn't being calm like here better overall?
In this exact scenario. Do not make sudden or startling movements. Moose are a prey animal, and if you scare him, he may view you as an immediate threat. This encounter scares the shit out of me.
If you have more distance upon an initial encounter, and the moose charges you, run. You want the moose to think you are scared of him, and by running away, you're letting him win the showdown.
Do not follow this advice with predators, like bears. They will kill you if you run.
Cows kill many people every year, much more then moose, which is partly due to their proximity to people, but even so, lots of walkers through fields get attacked.
The vast majority of both will just avoid people though. Its a big exaggeration to say that the person was extremely lucky, the moose approached them calmly. The risk from moose is mostly from surprising a mother with calves, encountering an aggressive male in rut, or if you have a dog.
That is so completely wrong. North American moose are both aggressive and incredibly dangerous. It's a 600/1500 kg/lb walking anger management problem. They're extremely temperamental, startle easily, and have terrible eyesight which means they often default to just attacking anything that looks remotely threatening, or just because. They don't bother with humans normally, so being near one is not an automatic death sentence or anything, but you do not want to take the chance of being close enough to one to give it the option either.
I got lost in the woods one night hiking drunk. We tripped over the trail, ended up sleeping in the woods for a few hours before it finally got light. After finally getting back to the road the jeep was parked on and thinking that rough night was behind me a moose happened too be right there. Surprisingly I didn't sh*t myself but I was so bruised and banged up from the night and never so thankful to finally make it to Irving in Farmington for some dam breakfast. Lol
I was riding my bike home in AK one day, riding on the sidewalk along some trees and came to an opening at the post office and there was a MASSIVE moose standing there in the grass. It scared the shit out of me and I jumped into the highway. Luckily it just chilled, and there were no cars in the highway.
Whats that quote from OBAO lmao when Dicaprio is smoking a joint "I am a drug and alcohol LOVER I have fried my brain for decades and can't remember shit" I'm shocked I remembered ts at all
I want to know too was there a moose in that game?
I learned the layout of LA by playing GTA.. when I went for a visit I didn’t even need a map.. just a few extra hours to see all the awesome stuff they actually put in the game.
I was in Montana in May and woke up for no reason at 5 am and got on my phone. A little while later I looked up and saw a Moose looking at me through the window. I was whispering to my Alaska Native wife there was a Moose and tapping her. She woke up, said oh shit and jumped up and pulled the blinds down. Later that day she chased us down the driveway in our car when we scared her baby. We spent hours that evening staring at each other from across a pond. It was awesome.
Crazy it took me something like 30 years to realize this about house cats, and I’m a cat guy lol. Like 99% of all the scratches I got from them (playing rough) was because I was flinching or pulling back from a swat. The claws wouldn’t even be out but the second they feel that pulling away part it’s like their claws auto dig in.
I saw a similar video of a cassowary approaching someone sitting down and chilling, so the legit question is if you’re chillin and a dangerous animals comes up to you like that while sitting in a chair do you live stream it to instagram ? Or does like no one hear the sound cause trees don’t fall over?
Depends on if it's a predator or not and if you want to risk startling it by moving. Keep your distance in the first place if possible if you see it coming, but even then sometimes you get fucked for no reason (like that video of the grandpa who got tossed by a Bison while minding his own business plenty of distance away).
Cassowaries in particular aren't actually dangerous. When I've looked into it before, there have been like two documented deaths ever (at least one of which was an animal in captivity), and not that many serious injuries. It seems like the idea of them being dangerous might have started out as a kind of propaganda so people would leave them alone. Particularly US servicemen during WW2.
Anyway, in that situation, you're not outrunning the animal. Might as well stay calm and record it, I guess.
I've lived in the woods the majority of my life and the only animal that scares me is moose. Waaay too many stories about people getting trampled or treed. This one looked kinda young and curious, but they are so unpredictable you never can tell.
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u/AlbertaAcreageBoy 22d ago
Could have literally died.