Everyone (except Perry, the Moose Whisperer) should watch this - moose will eat your lunch (and your dog)

The video was pretty measured by not talking about a couple of fatalities in Colorado. What I'm wondering is why they introduced moose to Colorado, as they're not native here. Also, one of the comments on that video said the guy on the snowmobile had been chasing the moose.

And I bet bear spray would work on an angry moose.
 
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Now have heard from others who did use it, Bear Spray does work on Moose.

Here in Wyoming, have seen many a Moose. Have myself never had a problem. I try to give them their space. Have heard that up in Alaska, Moose have even threatened the train. This is one animal one wants to give them their own space which they deserve. All the animals big or small deserve their own space and respect in my opinion.
 
Lol the lady reminded me of Jan, from the Brady Bunch.
Good video! Seeing the moose run so fast in the deep snow was pretty frightening.
 
It really should be required reading, then tests given and passed before allowing many out in the backcountry. Moose are obviously no jokes and they hate dogs, but there are signs to read posted on most trailheads that explain things to look for. If we merely respect the animals, odds of being charged are slim.

@Rockskipper - I was just thinking that in the next ten years it would not surprise me to see wolves officially re-introduced to CO, in large part because the moose have no predators here and are getting out of control. There have been a number of articles recently about the moose expanding in RMNP.
 
I would welcome wolves, plus they were native here. I swear I saw one on Cochetopa Pass a number of years ago in the winter. My sister was with me and she also swears it was a wolf. It was almost white, large, and had a wolf's face. I've seen a gazillion coyotes (maybe even more) and it looked nothing like a coyote, nor a dog, nor a dog-coyote mix. It was really beautiful.
 
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It seems crazy that Colorado would have such a huge number of moose. Here in Utah a moose tag is still a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
 
Actually, moose were native to northern CO (Steamboat Springs area, Routt County) back in the day. The suspicion was that moose had just started colonizing the Park Range when settlers moved in and easily extirpated them. The last one was shot in the early 1900's (IIRC). There was a shoulder mount of one in the Routt County admin building 25 years ago (I used to live there). Therefore the re-introduction to northern CO.

I was taught in a wildlife class at CSU that the CO legislature passed a law about 40 years ago banning the re-introduction of any large predators, not sure if that is really true.

Kunkel's PhD work in the Glacier Park area showed that recolonizing wolves had little impact on the local moose population. Their main prey were whitetails mostly and elk to a lesser extent. Yellowstone has obviously demonstrated that if elk are (overly) abundant, as they are in CO, wolves will key in on them. Bottom line, wolves will target the most abundant food source.

Colorado has a wolf sighting reporting program at: https://cpw.state.co.us/learn/Pages/Wolf-Sighting-Form.aspx

There are a handful of credible/actual wolf sightings/deaths in CO since the re-intro to Yellowstone. CDOW knows they will become established in the near-future. Sorry, went way off-track.
 
The first moose I ever saw was above Grand Lake coming down the west side of Trail Ridge. Grand Lake has seen at least three serious moose attacks with at least two having brain injuries. They knock you down and then stomp you.

And them being native to the Park Range, even though we never heard of them, when I was growing up there, would explain why the DOW felt comfortable reintroducing them. I always thought they weren't native. Thanks for that tidbit. Ironic that they were native to my home area (I grew up between Steamboat and Craig).

I'm personally pretty timid around them. :) I had one messing around my little camp trailer once a few years ago when I was camped up under Sunlight Mountain here above Glenwood Springs. There were bogs down below me. Darn thing scared me to death. Even the dogs hid under the table. When I was in Palmer, Alaska, there were several that would come around the house every day as it was rural with lots of grasses. I was really careful when I took the dogs to the car. I posted a picture I took out of the living room window on the wildlife thread.
 
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Just as it is with bears I REALLY do not like the word "attack" being used to describe an animal defending it's space. Your dog agitates a moose and the moose comes at you it is YOUR fault. You get to close to photograph or film a moose and it comes at you it is YOUR FAULT. Running moose at a ski area on a snowboard or on skis is bull!@#$.
 
Not so sure they were running moose on the snowboard, but rather the moose were on the slope the boarder was going down. I would've stopped, though, and he was lucky the moose didn't charge him. But yes, snowmobiles running moose is criminal, which was supposedly what was going on in that video before the moose turned on him. And do you recall the story of the guy in B.C. who jumped onto the back of a moose from his boat while his buddy filmed him riding the moose across the lake? They both received nice fines.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...ssing-wildlife-in-northern-b-c-lake-1.4009623

There's a video on Youtube of a moose jumping a fence into a Colorado yard to stomp a little dog. I would view this as an attack, but I agree that it makes the animal seem more malevolant than it is, as it really is just acting llike a moose and defending its rights to territory, safety, and being left alone.
 

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