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Alaska,
moose, attack, adventure tale by Marcie Foley It’s not uncommon to see moose in Fairbanks, Alaska where I live, and I see them often. Although most Alaskans see moose often, we don’t usually expect to have one charge us, especially right in our own living rooms! But it can happen, and this is the story of how it happened to me... The Alaska moose is the largest member of the
deer family Moose do not travel in herds or complete family groups. Most often you see a lone cow, a young moose of either sex, or a cow with one, two, or sometimes even three calves. In summer they eat leaves, or water plants in sloughs and ponds, to build up to 50% excess weight in fat for the winter. In winter they range far and wide to areas of low snow levels, eating twigs (mostly willow), which grow most everywhere in interior Alaska. By spring they have lost the excess weight built up over the previous summer. In addition to never approaching a moose, there are two other situations that Alaskans strive to avoid. They never get between a cow moose and her calf, and they never get within her “protective area,” the area she has decided is too close to her calf for comfort. Cows are fiercely protective of their calves, and the smaller the calf, the more protective they are. They will not hesitate to risk their lives for their calves, and “woe unto him” who gets near a cow with a calf. Cows care for their calves for a year after they are born. I’ve only lived in Alaska for three years, but my husband is a longtime Alaskan, and after having spending my first two years right in town, I eagerly looked forward to moving out of town recently. There is no scenery more beautiful than the forest and mountains in winter in Alaska, unless it is the fantastic way the sunlight lights the skies of winter days, all pink and gold from the angle of the sun, or the magnificent northern lights (or Aurora Borealis) that lights the nighttime sky with their dancing curtains. All of which are much more visible outside of town. Our little cottage is on two forested acres, and while there are homes nearby, there are none in sight. Parcels of property are larger out here than in the city, and I was not disappointed in the beautiful views we had from every window. I have not seen too much more animal life than in town, however, and except for an occasional fox and some ptarmigan (a game bird), most of the animals I see are the moose who wander through, browsing on the willows. My husband occasionally works evenings, and on one of these recent evenings when he was working, I was working at my computer when I heard footsteps on the porch. The windows were uncovered and I walked over to see who was at the door, my mind on the work I was doing; checking was just a reaction. We have two windows in this area of our living room, one of them overlooking the driveway and a pasture beyond (this one is above my computer desk), and one that shows the front porch and the door, and the lawn beyond that. They’re fairly large windows, about 5 feet by 5 feet. I had the lights on inside and out. The outside lights light up the porch, another lights the drive and the barn behind it, and a third lights the back of the house. When I got up, my cat Missy also jumped up onto the table in front of the window I was checking. At first I had trouble seeing because of the reflection in the window, then it moved or I did, and I was staring, eye-to-eye, with a big cow moose who’d just stepped off the porch and turned back to face my way! The porch is not high, just two short steps, and is only about 8 feet square. She was as surprised to see me as I was to see her, and for just a split second we froze, staring at one another. Then I instinctively backed out of view of the window, and something in the other window caught my eye. I just caught a flash of something running toward the porch. I looked back, but it was already gone from the light. Then I noticed “Mom” Moose again, and it hit me. OH NO! It was a little calf, and I was in Mom’s protective area… how did I know this? Well, I have seen photos of moose who are upset. Believe me, if you're ever looking at one who is upset, you'll know it! Then I saw that her ears were back, her head had gone down, the hair on her back was up, and aaaaaaaaaaaghhhh! SHE WAS GOING TO CHARGE ME THROUGH THE WINDOW!!!!! For a split second I hesitated… what should
I do??? Then she moved, my
heart leaped into my throat, and I didn’t hesitate.
I immediately dropped to the floor!
It was just a reflex There was a tremendous clattering and racket on the porch, but I didn’t look. I didn’t want her to be able to see me again. I was shaking like a leaf and my heart was pounding in my chest. Unknowingly, however, I had done the right thing by getting out of her sight. Photo at right: Picture of a mad moose! Courtesy Alaska magazine, August 1998. Later we could see that “Mom” had had her problems, too. When she headed for me, she first had to plunge through a big pile of snow that had just slid off the roof, and then when she did hit the porch, she immediately stepped onto a slick patch of ice, her feet slid right out from under her, and she had to scramble around for her footing. By this time I had reached up and restored the outside lights, hoping that would prevent her from seeing inside. I was still hearing a lot of noise outside and I finally risked a peek from behind a chair. She could still see Missy the cat on the table, who was almost up against the window glass and who appeared to be permanently frozen with her back hiked up as high as it would go, every hair from the tip of her nose to the tip of her tail standing on end, eyes as big as saucers, and a silent scream in her open mouth! The moose was prancing about, obviously very agitated, and she did not want to see the cat! Staying down low I hissed at Missy to “Get down!” She seemed unable to move, her eyes on the moose prancing around with her huge head right up against the window at times, still agitated at seeing her there, so I quickly crawled over to the table and reached up, trying to keep my head low, and with my full arm I swept Missy to the floor! She just sat there, [Thanks… I needed that, Mom] she seemed to be saying. She was still having trouble taking it all in. The computer chair faced the window but was behind the table, so keeping the chair between me and the window, and crouching a bit, I sat up and tried to slow my thudding heart. My faced was flushed, and I knew my blood pressure was probably shooting through the roof. I sat there resting my face against the chair back for a moment, and a slight brushing sound caught my attention. It was silent in the room except for the low hum of the computer, and when I looked up, it was to see the calf’s back right against the other window, the one facing the pasture. The ridge of his back, with short hair sticking up, was just a little more than two inches above the lower edge of the window. I gasped. I could see “Mom” in the background. The former homeowner had planted marigolds against the base of the house there, and the dried stalks and flowers remained. The snow load that had recently slid from the roof formed a mound three feet high all along that wall of the house. This calf was smack up against the house, rubbing against the wall as he walked between the house and the snow mound, munching dried flowers. I put my head down again, and a moment later when I raised it he was gone. I ducked back down and decided to call my husband at work. It would feel good to talk to him, I could ask if I should do anything else, and hopefully calm down. I reached up on the desk for the phone and… OH GEEEEEEEEEE… Now the window was filled with Mom! All I could see was “moose body!” No front, no back, no bottom… the body was filling the window more than halfway to the top! What if she backed up a bit and saw me inside? I immediately had a vision of her crashing through the window to get at me. I crouched down again and renewed my efforts to get to the phone quietly. I was less than 3 feet from this huge body filling the window, with nothing between us but a triple-pane window. I finally managed to pull the phone to the front of the desk, where it dangled over the edge by the cord. Keeping my head down I dialed in the glow from the computer screen. I got a wrong number. Taking a deep breath, I dialed again, and this time I thankfully heard my wonderful husband’s voice. I said “Hi… I just want to talk to you for a minute to calm down…” “What’s wrong???” he said, and I could hear a hint of alarm in his voice. “Everything is okay, but this moose charged the window, and she’s still outside with her calf, and…” my voice, which sounded a little shaky even to me, trailed off… “I’ll be right home!” he said. “No, ” I protested, “I am fine, but…” “I’m leaving now, I’ll be right there!” And the phone went dead. I hung up on my end and gratefully rested my head against the back of the chair, knowing he would be home within five minutes. The two moose continued to scrape and munch alongside the house, eating the dried flowers down to the top of the hard packed snow until just before my husband got there, and by the time he pulled into the yard they were wandering out of the light in the back of the house. Later I had a glimpse of Mom’s long legs in the outer edge of our circle of light, as she walked along the perimeter of our lawn, but they did not come in close again. Missy alerted me as she maintained a vigil at the window for the rest of the evening. It was clear that once I had disappeared from
sight, the moose placidly went back to their normal routine of eating
their way through the neighborhood.
Other than a lot of “moose slobber” my window was no worse
for the wear. While it shook me up a bit, I don’t believe it was an uncommon experience. Interior Alaska is still a frontier. While modern conveniences and technology is at your fingertips, you must never forget that you are in the midst of a raw, wild land where you can be instantly plunged into a confrontation with a moose, a bear, or other wild animal. You are the interloper here, not they. Despite these facts, it is a magical place. It tugs at the heart of the unique individual called "Alaskan." He who braves the harsh environment of the interior’s winter to live here. Not many of them ever leave it for good, as it constantly calls them home. |
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Copyright © 2001-2006
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in North America, and a
cow moose generally weighs between 500 and 900 pounds, with a bull moose
weighing in between 800 and 1200 pounds.
Since most bears and wolves
avoid human contact and cities, many moose now frequent these areas to
bear their young in the spring. They can be dangerous in any situation,
and no Alaskan approaches a moose (at least none in their right mind).
action.
