Are There Moose?

WHEN WILL I SEE A MOOSE?
(click on the photos to enlarge)

I work with quite a few manufacturer reps when they come up from the States. They are always interested in seeing a moose. For some reason few actually do even though there are hundreds of moose living in Anchorage.

When I left for work on September 23rd (to pick up a rep) what to my wondering eyes did appear, a moose at the end of our street! We had seen a mama and two calves a few times lately up and down the roads near our home. I had noticed a pile of you-know on the grass in our front yard a few days before.


Well, on this particular morning while turning from our street I saw a mama moose. I had to get some photos.


Then as I went to turn around I saw the two calves down by the corner. I had to get some photos.





The baby moose were doing their best to keep eating and ignore my car. After a few seconds though it got to be just too much to bear. They ran for mama.



I have never seen before what I saw then. Take a look.


They are pretty big and are weened to a point since they are foraging, but running to mom and nursing might be a fright and flight reflex. I wonder how many people have a photo or a video of nursing moose calves in the wild. I wanted a still shot of them nursing so I stopped the video.


Immediately I wished I'd kept the video going. Mama was not happy about them latching on and broke things up right after I took the photo. It would have been neat to have that on video. She wasn't mean or anything like that. She was just very firm in shaking them off and making some grunting noises while she did. These two photos are of right after she packed up breakfast.


I started the video again. Mama still seemed irritated and I thought that maybe I was pushing my luck, particularly when she started coming toward me. If you listen closely you can hear her tisking me for being so rude.


Here are a few parting photos as I graciously let them resume their breakfast undisturbed.