A Sad Moose Tale

As Spring arrives in full force here in Alaska so do the animal babies especially bear cubs and moose calves. Moose are so much fun to watch. How can you watch video like this baby moose attacking a septic vent or this teenager taking a Spring shower (pick the one titled Alaskan moose shower) and not want one for a pet or at least a neighborhood moose to feed the occasional carrot to. (btw - This is illegal in Anchorage.)

Of course, some of the freshly awakened bears are hungry (wait - probably all of them are) and there is the ever present natural order of things such as bear attacking moose - normally it isn't caught on video in your driveway. While this is a fact of nature, bears attacking people (although rare) is frowned on (by the people especially) and hence we have a new wildlife plan this year for problem bears on the Russian River. This is a very serious concern and danger, but I keep flashing on the Christmas Song when no other reindeer will play with Rudolph because he is different. The blue bear will be an outcast and none of the others will play with him...

Today's sad moose tale though is what happens as people move into the homes of these wild animals - after all, they were here first. Some kids were playing and accidently got too close to a momma moose and her two calves. Momma, wanting to protect her babies, attacked an 8 year old boy. Luckily, she wasn't out to kill him or she would have. He is bruised, very scared, sore but very much alive. Momma, however, isn't. Police had to shoot her and carry away the small, orphaned calves. It was the only way to get the child out of the yard safely.

Besides cars hitting 650 moose last year in the Anchorage Borough, this is the second time since moving here I have seen a story of police shooting a charging moose. The first time, tourists were bothering one downtown and wouldn't leave it alone until it was too late.

Of course, all of this publicity about moose babies caused us to go look for them last night. They must have been down for the evening as we didn't see a single one.