>If a moose is already charging, I'm not sure running away will really help you
Often they don't chase. It's not like you're prey to them. If they got rid of you by scaring you off, they already accomplished their goal. Running away communicates very clearly that you don't plan to fuck with them.
They may make you run for a couple meters and once they're satisfied get back to whatever they were doing.
Yeah. There's supposedly been schemes at developing moose cavalry. Which sounds silly as hell but would have been pretty terrifying. Like they're larger than a draft horse and very mobile in rough terrain.
Yes, I once just about walked into one while lost in thought when walking along a trail. I didn't see it because its chest was over my head; there were only legs in my line of sight.
Most moose encounters are entirely uneventful. Moose normally avoid / don't care about humans. That's why they are actually most dangerous to drivers - a high velocity moose crash is very dangerous for any vehicle smaller than a semi or van due to the anatomical mechanics of the moose body.
I.e. You will take out the moose's legs, but the rest of injured, still living, moose will come through the windshield to join you in the passenger compartment.
Outside of mating season and when not appearing threatening typically 'just fine'. With young and whilst in mating season: avoid if you can. Seeing two bull moose crash into each other will give you all kinds of things to think about, such as what would happen to your car if one decided to plow into it. And they don't move slow either, they are very agile, probably much more so than you'd give them credit for if you haven't seen them in action. It's more like swordfighters than sumo wrestlers.
Semi-relevant, I've recently realised that fear of wildlife is actually cultural - large parts of the world are taught to fear/avoid smaller wildlife like snakes or insects, for poison/disease reasons. It works great in those places, but if they come to Canada they can see bobcats/mountain lions and think house cat, or other large mammals (moose, bison, elk) and just think they're cute and should be petted.
Meanwhile growing up you're basically taught "look, don't touch" and "back away slowly" with regards to anything the size of a goose or bigger. This comes with lessons like don't mess with big/wild cats, and however large you expect the moose to be, it will inevitably be bigger.
Of course, I'm sure there are areas of the world where that knowledge will completely miss the actual relevant risk(s). Probably something to do with spiders/snakes, as they're just generally harmless here.
It actually wasn't long ago that there was a similarly large type of wild animal around: The aurochs. The Eurasian variant of which was domesticated and resulted in the cattle of today.
> The aurochs was one of the largest herbivores in Holocene Europe. The size of an aurochs appears to have varied by region, with larger specimens in northern Europe than farther south. Aurochs in Denmark and Germany ranged in height at the shoulders between 155–180 cm (61–71 in) in bulls and 135–155 cm (53–61 in) in cows, while aurochs bulls in Hungary reached 160 cm (63 in).[45] (...) The body mass of aurochs appears to have shown some variability. Some individuals reached around 700 kg (1,540 lb), whereas those from the late Middle Pleistocene are estimated to have weighed up to 1,500 kg (3,310 lb).[5]
By the way, the European bison (Wisent) almost also went extinct. In fact it was extinct in the wild, when the last free-living exemplar was shot in 1927, three hundred years after the last aurochs.
I assume the European moose / elk survived because it lived in colder, less populated regions.
The moose attacks exactly how akaska.gov says it usually does, with its front hooves. Unfortunately, this guy could not run because he was in a narrow path on a snowmobile.
The snow is too deep on either side, with too many trees to quickly and effectively turn around without getting stuck. It might work, but he could very easily have gotten stuck trying to do it. You also need to drive forward to start the turn, and the moose absolutely can outrun your snowmobile in that snow, so if it attacks you're going to have a problem.
Reverse isn't always available on snowmobiles. Even if this one had reverse, in this loose snow it would likely dig in and bury itself. I guess you've never ridden a snowmobile?
Too deep? It's maybe 30-40 cm max. A snowmobile handles that without any problems. At the end of the video, you can see that he drives "off road" off the trail without any problems.
> It might work, but he could very easily have gotten stuck trying to do it.
If that were so, don't you think that person has feet? Or is the amount of snow too much for him to walk as well?
> And since you're stereotyping him as an American above, without any knowledge or experience in such a situation on your side,
I'm from Norway. Heard of it? We have moose, snow, snowmobiles etc. You can google it.
Also: where's the guy in the video from? Do you know?
> At the end of the video, you can see that he drives "off road" off the trail without any problems.
"off road" at the end is like 5cm deep powder on top of compact snow, which has been exposed to sunlight. The snow at the beginning, where he could have tried to turn around, is completely powder because it's sheltered by trees and looks to be more like 60+cm deep. His turn radius also would have likely led him into a tree: https://imgur.com/a/bDLV2lL. Then he would need to get away from a potentially charging moose, which can top out at 56km/h. You wouldn't be able to go that fast on this narrow and winding of a trail -> the moose will catch him if it charges.
> If that were so, don't you think that person has feet? Or is the amount of snow too much for him to walk as well?
If you expect someone to get in a footrace with a charging moose in any conditions, let alone 30-40+cm deep snow, I don't know what to say.
You come across as a deeply unhappy and unpleasant person, and I wish you luck with your life.
> If you expect someone to get in a footrace with a charging moose in any conditions, let alone 30-40+cm deep snow, I don't know what to say.
The OP article actually says that it's the thing to do: "Unlike with bears or even dogs, it is usually a good idea to run from a moose because they won't chase you very far."
Say yes or no to this question: do you think the human in the video is the most aggressive animal?
> You come across as a deeply unhappy and unpleasant person
I understand that, because I care more about wildlife than idiots.
Since you've already started with the epithets: judging emergency situations from behind a keyboard is typical idiot behavior. Even if the person in the video could have acted better in hindsight, he had seconds under stress and threat to react. He is also probably more familiar with the wildlife around those parts then you are.
My behind the keyboard analysis: I don't think I would have had the courage to turn my back on a aggressive animal which is not cornered.
Upon seeing the moose he should have gotten off the snowmobile and headed into the woods.
Or at least he shouldn't have went in the direction of the animal - that was his choice and he endangered himself by doing this.
I've only seen a moose once in my lifetime and that was on a somewhat crowded trail, but there was no aggression whatsoever on part of it because everyone kept their distance and didn't try to bother the animal.
Nationalistic flamebait isn't ok here, regardless of what country you have an issue with, so please don't post like this to HN. Flamewar comments of any kind are not what we're going for here.
I remember the woman in Sweden that was found, apparently, beaten to death. Of course the husband was the prime suspect. Took a long good while for them to agree that she was in fact killed by a moose. He even sued for wrongful accusation:
Extremely unfortunate. You have to deal with your spouse's death and as an extra, you get thrown in jail and ostracized by your community. The article doesn't say anything of what happened afterwards, but I hope the man had his retribution.
This underlines the unfortunate difference between what you see on TV shows like CSI and reality: I think if either the police or the pathologist had cared to look close enough, the differences between the wounds of being beaten vs. trampled by a moose should be enough to clear the husband of suspicion before he was charged?
That story is a despicable example of shabby police work. They found blood on the lawnmover and assumed it was her blood. They never tested the kind of blood. It turned out it was blood from snails.
I was with you for the first half, but I've seen moose on the road. They sometimes just appear, much like deer would just appear in the midwest. Even when you see them, you might not have much time to respond. It is amazing that they can blend into the woods so readily considering their size.
You don't even have to go north, really. Just driving a few nights on a quiet, dark road outside the big cities late at night will convince you that deer 1) basically teleport 2) are stupid 3) can be absolutely terrifying when they show up out of nowhere, despite 2. (And yes, 2 only really applies w.r.t. cars and roads.)
Possibly time of year dependent, I guess, but seriously, one weekend of nightly midnight drives out in the Shuswap area of BC was all it took. I now/still respect the effects of the deer, but marvel at their unmitigated stupidity.
True. I crashed into one somewhere in Iowa, we weren't going fast, maybe 45 mph, the deer probably jumped up from the ditch besides the road. Poor deer. Great people in the village where we ended up with the damaged car, the local bodyshop guy opened up for us in the middle of the night, pulled the front more or less back into shape and plugged a hole in the rad and the valve cover. Total charge for 6 hours of work + materials: $0. So we could continue our trip to friends in the Rocky Mountains with only a slight delay when we originally thought we'd have to abort the trip right there.
I guess that people who never hit a deer think you're just joking, but I know what you mean. It's not just that they blend so well in their surrounding, but if they're moving very fast they can jump quite some distances.
I hit my first deer during a night-time driving lesson. It just manifested itself in a turn right in front of the car. It happened so freaking fast that even my driving instructor didn't get right away what happened. (To be fair this was his first deer accident too). There were just something flying in front of the car, getting hit and flying away to the side of the road.
It was very different from my imagination which formed during my childhood hearing adults talking about split second decisions in case of a deer appearing in front of the car.
Deer also have a survival instinct that works against them. You will sometimes see a deer cross the road going one direction and think that they're safe, but then they will suddenly jump in front of you going the other direction. The reason is the deer had a fawn and they see you as a big predator. So they had the fawn hunker down on the other side of the road and then jump in front of your face to distract you into chasing them to increase the chance that the fawn can escape.
If you ever see a deer cross in front of you, especially with a fawn in tow, slow down and be prepared to slam on the brakes because they might be preparing to jump right into your path. These kinds of accidents are especially deadly because they don't hit the bumper, they tend to smash directly into the windscreen, sometimes breaking through and crushing the front seat passengers.
Nearly always, but when they do hit it has some serious momentum. I was witness to the aftermath a pretty bad accident on the road between Barrie and Sudbury where a moose ran into a truck on the side. The truck overturned due to the impact, the moose (incredibly) ran on but probably died somewhere in the forest from its injuries.
I also came across a moose running across the road that cut through a forest and it never slowed down, they weave with their heads to keep the antlers from ramming into the trees in a way that is quite amazing. They run through a forest that I couldn't run through without clipping the trees and those animals are easily four times as wide.
you try driving for 3-4 hours looking at and scrutinizing every upcoming bush along the way. This is the dumbest and rudest take on accidents i've heard here.
Driving at night the animal is nearly invisible in the shadows of the road shoulder. Even in the day they can bolt without warning. Always a good idea to slow down if you do see them, and put hazard lights on to warn other drivers. Dawn and dusk are when they are most active.
In a split second they can walk in front of you before you can brake. Add wet, foggy, icy, or snowy conditions and the braking ability is even more limited.
A friend of mine that grew up in northern New Hampshire was taught that breaking when about to hit a moose was deadly for precisely this reason. He said to speed up and try to make to the opposite side of the moose so the body didn't land on you.
I have no idea if this is really good advice or widely shared. I hope I never have to make that split second decision.
I was in my mid-30s the first time I saw a moose up close. It almost caused an accident between me and a logging truck. It was massive to the point of absurdity. If you've never seen one it's difficult to imagine how big they are.
at the very least it's super-counterintuitive because your biggest desire in the world of course is to slam the breaks and try to not hit it at all. I seriously doubt I'll have the balls to floor it when I see one.
Moose mating season is very impressive. On the road between Wawa and Sault Ste. Marie I ran into a massive herd around dusk. Even in a pickup truck the bulls easily tower above you and the cows aren't all that much smaller and will still look down on you.
Go slow, and don't use your horn. Unfortunately there is no way to avoid that road because there really are no others that aren't even worse.
Once I was on a mountain ridge, trail was basically on the side of the mountain with a sheer drop on one side and sheer incline on the other. Rounded a corner and saw the bull moose facing me, chomping leaves. I mistakenly thought my bear bell might gently prod it to leave, so I shook it a bunch making noise. But instead of it leaving, it looked at me and then slowly started walking towards me.
Luckily I'd read enough about moose and started walking backwards, then sped up my walking as it got closer, and as soon as I rounded the bend, ran like crazy until I found part of the hill I could climb. When the moose got to where I climbed, it stopped and looked around for me. Eventually it moved on.
I was watching it from behind the tiny tree I was hiding behind, about 25 yards up the mountain. Was hoping I was far enough and that moose couldn't run uphill...
Here in Norway, we call the moose for “elg.” Same in Sweden. Well, almost the same. They call it “älg”. It's very similar to the English word elk, but it means moose, though elk is of course also in the deer family.
While the Northern European moose is smaller than the North American, we still treat it with a lot of respect if we ever come across them in nature. Especially if the moose has calves, you should steer well clear of it, because the mother will attack, and kill or maim you badly.
Sadly, being such a heavy animal – it can easily weigh a literal tonne – it’s also the source of some very serious car accidents, especially on lonely stretches of roads passing through forests, for which there is a lot of on the Scandinavian peninsula.
Being so tall, the car will hit its feet first, and then the rest of the animal will land on the bonnet and window, often crushing the driver and passengers.
Worst of all, they like to trek at dusk, or when the light is dim, so if you’re ever on a lonely, forested stretch of road during that time, you need to keep your eyes peeled. On top of that, that’s the time of day when the pelt disguises them the best against the surrounding nature, so you really must keep on your toes when driving during those hours.
> While the Northern European moose is smaller than the North American, we still treat it with a lot of respect if we ever come across them in nature.
Smaller deers are dangerous and you need to be careful with them. In Spain the largest deers are red deers (males over 200kg are very rare) and there are a few cases of people killed by them. Even small females are dangerous enough to kill healthy large man.
Even roe deers, which are quite small (maybe 30kg a larger male), can cause serious injuries because they are crazy agile and fast and their antlers are quite sharp. Here's a video of a man trying to feed one: https://www.club-caza.com/files/videos/Ataque-de-corzo-a-per...
Deers may not look dangerous because they are herbivorous and cute, but they are.
Deers may not look dangerous because they are herbivorous and cute, but they are.
Good advice, and not something most people think about. As a general rule, all wild animals should be treated as dangerous and not cute and harmless. Even a baby squirrel will scratch the shit out of you. Cute little bunnies? Yeah, watch what happens when they're cornered and think they nothing left to lose. Experience says birds might be the one exception, though I've never tried to get close to an eagle. :-)
If it has claws, teeth, and doesn't live with me in my house, I treat it with a respectful distance until I have reason to believe otherwise, no matter how cute it might be.
I remember half a lifetime ago when I was on my way to start the paper delivery rounds (I had to pay for my Amiga equipment somehow!) on my little 50cc scooter - probably around 5am in the morning, in a small place in Østfold, Norway.
Suddenly rounding a corner on a semi rural forest road I saw something in the corner of my eye up ahead; I hit the brakes and then there was this massive elg crossing the road ahead of me, certainly not quite far enough away, turning its head to give me a fair bit of eye as its little ones followed.
I just sat there perfectly still for a few minutes, not giving it any reason to investigate me further - then kept going, still awestruck by what I had witnessed.
The Kangaroos and Wallabies I've come across down under whilst mountain bike riding are cool and all, but they don't hold a candle to the experience of a close encounter with a properly grown elg. Ah, the memories.
I'm an Atari ST guy myself, so now we can never be friends... But I gave you an upvote either way. ;) Jk, I had a lot of fun with Amigas too, when I grew up.
I remember pitching my tent in somewhere in the deep forests of Västra Götaland in Sweden. I had found the perfect spot with a soft, mossy surface. Little did I know that I'd get no sleep at all, due to the entire place being infested with rodents running like mad underneath before I got into real trouble.
When it started to dusk, I noticed slow thumping and the cracking of twigs beyond the small hill across the road not far from me, so I unzipped the opening and stuck my head out of the tent to see what was going on.
Then after a while, some majestic antlers crested the hill, and the biggest moose I've ever seen appeared before me. It was clearly minding its own business and having a great day. Until it saw me, that is.
It stopped dead in its tracks while ogling me. Then it snarled and sighed heavily, kind of like Sprocket - the dog in the Fraggle Rock Show - would make when fed up. It was clearly annoyed. Then it slowly turned, and trotted the other way, obviously quite irritated by having met some dumb camper.
During the night it got much worse, however. Except now it was pitch black. Suddenly I noticed the thumping again, from the same direction as earlier. And it was coming closer.
But this time, when I stuck my head out of the tent, I couldn't see anything. The night was pitch black. I couldn't even make out the stars in the sky. So, I quickly decided that it was a bad idea to light the torch. I didn’t want to become the only lighted target in all that darkness.
Meanwhile twigs were cracking. And the thumping just became louder and louder, and closer and closer. Thump.... Thump.... Crack some twigs.... Thump.... It was really slow, but also deliberate. And it was clearly headed straight for my tent, even though I couldn't see anything in the dark. For each thump the dread in me kept increasing.
At first, I tried yelling at it. This would stop the thumping for a bit, like the animal was assessing what was going on and sniffing the air for a bit. But then he just continued. So, I pulled out some pans I had and started desperately clanking them together while yelling into the night. But to no avail. The slow thumping just continued. Coming ever closer. Towards my tent. I've never felt so small and helpless in my entire life.
At some point I decided that I'd had enough, and I ran like a panicked little chicken to the car parked a few hundred metres away. Then I simply waited until I couldn't hear the thumping anymore and went back and dismantled the tent and slept in the car.
> Here in Norway, we call the moose for “elg.” Same in Sweden. Well, almost the same. They call it “älg”. It's very similar to the English word elk, but it means moose, though elk is of course also in the deer family.
In North America there is an animal which is not a moose, but which are "for their unusual largeness improperly termed Elks by ignorant people"!
> Sadly, being such a heavy animal – it can easily weigh a literal tonne – it’s also the source of some very serious car accidents, especially on lonely stretches of roads passing through forests, for which there is a lot of on the Scandinavian peninsula.
A Swedish friend told me that if you take your driving test in northern Sweden, there is an extra section about emergency stops, precisely because of moose danger.
> In North America there is an animal which is not a moose, but which are "for their unusual largeness improperly termed Elks by ignorant people"!
I'd say at this point in time the word "elk" in English means elk, not moose, at least in North American English. The article you linked to is in fact an article about the North American species of animal called elk, or Cervus canadensis. The quotation you cite is from 1672.
If you would like to spend some time with non-agressive moose, completely tame individuals who love to be scratched or given a potato, I recommend visiting The Moose Garden in Sweden. Last time I was there they planned to also provide accomodation together with the baby moose in their separate private enclosures, as living with them is a part of taming process. The best time to visit is in late spring, as their skin produces an oil which smells like fabric softener. You cannot visit at all during mating season obviously. This is not an ad Im just a happy visitor.
81 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 153 ms ] threadhttps://www.google.com/search?q=moose+sharpened+toothbrush
Also:
> if a moose does charge, don't wait to find out if it's bluffing. Run and get behind something solid, like a tree, or retreat to a safe place.
Human agility and ability to go round corners faster is probably your only protection.
Often they don't chase. It's not like you're prey to them. If they got rid of you by scaring you off, they already accomplished their goal. Running away communicates very clearly that you don't plan to fuck with them.
They may make you run for a couple meters and once they're satisfied get back to whatever they were doing.
https://youtu.be/9Pg2CDCm34w
EDIT: Apologies, apparently we have them in Europe too
edit: this is a good sample:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-7imHBlguk
It is certainly the closest I have been to a moose, but living in that area, I encountered them fairly often. They are usually pretty docile.
Meanwhile growing up you're basically taught "look, don't touch" and "back away slowly" with regards to anything the size of a goose or bigger. This comes with lessons like don't mess with big/wild cats, and however large you expect the moose to be, it will inevitably be bigger.
Of course, I'm sure there are areas of the world where that knowledge will completely miss the actual relevant risk(s). Probably something to do with spiders/snakes, as they're just generally harmless here.
> The aurochs was one of the largest herbivores in Holocene Europe. The size of an aurochs appears to have varied by region, with larger specimens in northern Europe than farther south. Aurochs in Denmark and Germany ranged in height at the shoulders between 155–180 cm (61–71 in) in bulls and 135–155 cm (53–61 in) in cows, while aurochs bulls in Hungary reached 160 cm (63 in).[45] (...) The body mass of aurochs appears to have shown some variability. Some individuals reached around 700 kg (1,540 lb), whereas those from the late Middle Pleistocene are estimated to have weighed up to 1,500 kg (3,310 lb).[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurochs
They went extinct in 1627.
By the way, the European bison (Wisent) almost also went extinct. In fact it was extinct in the wild, when the last free-living exemplar was shot in 1927, three hundred years after the last aurochs.
I assume the European moose / elk survived because it lived in colder, less populated regions.
The moose attacks exactly how akaska.gov says it usually does, with its front hooves. Unfortunately, this guy could not run because he was in a narrow path on a snowmobile.
Only drew his pistol after the first charge, and then gave a warning shot.
The dude tried everything he could in this situation, and I'm sure he's not happy he had to shoot such a beautiful animal.
Reverse isn't always available on snowmobiles. Even if this one had reverse, in this loose snow it would likely dig in and bury itself. I guess you've never ridden a snowmobile?
Too deep? It's maybe 30-40 cm max. A snowmobile handles that without any problems. At the end of the video, you can see that he drives "off road" off the trail without any problems.
> It might work, but he could very easily have gotten stuck trying to do it.
If that were so, don't you think that person has feet? Or is the amount of snow too much for him to walk as well?
> And since you're stereotyping him as an American above, without any knowledge or experience in such a situation on your side,
I'm from Norway. Heard of it? We have moose, snow, snowmobiles etc. You can google it.
Also: where's the guy in the video from? Do you know?
"off road" at the end is like 5cm deep powder on top of compact snow, which has been exposed to sunlight. The snow at the beginning, where he could have tried to turn around, is completely powder because it's sheltered by trees and looks to be more like 60+cm deep. His turn radius also would have likely led him into a tree: https://imgur.com/a/bDLV2lL. Then he would need to get away from a potentially charging moose, which can top out at 56km/h. You wouldn't be able to go that fast on this narrow and winding of a trail -> the moose will catch him if it charges.
> If that were so, don't you think that person has feet? Or is the amount of snow too much for him to walk as well?
If you expect someone to get in a footrace with a charging moose in any conditions, let alone 30-40+cm deep snow, I don't know what to say.
You come across as a deeply unhappy and unpleasant person, and I wish you luck with your life.
The OP article actually says that it's the thing to do: "Unlike with bears or even dogs, it is usually a good idea to run from a moose because they won't chase you very far."
Say yes or no to this question: do you think the human in the video is the most aggressive animal?
> You come across as a deeply unhappy and unpleasant person
I understand that, because I care more about wildlife than idiots.
My behind the keyboard analysis: I don't think I would have had the courage to turn my back on a aggressive animal which is not cornered.
I'm glad you agree!
So is provoking a moose for no reason, and then shooting it. Don't you agree?
Or at least he shouldn't have went in the direction of the animal - that was his choice and he endangered himself by doing this.
I've only seen a moose once in my lifetime and that was on a somewhat crowded trail, but there was no aggression whatsoever on part of it because everyone kept their distance and didn't try to bother the animal.
If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/6264964
Aka... Driver is darwin'ing themselves..
I was with you for the first half, but I've seen moose on the road. They sometimes just appear, much like deer would just appear in the midwest. Even when you see them, you might not have much time to respond. It is amazing that they can blend into the woods so readily considering their size.
Possibly time of year dependent, I guess, but seriously, one weekend of nightly midnight drives out in the Shuswap area of BC was all it took. I now/still respect the effects of the deer, but marvel at their unmitigated stupidity.
I have surprised deer on the road, at night, and had them respond by running toward me. That did not help the probability of a collision...
I hit my first deer during a night-time driving lesson. It just manifested itself in a turn right in front of the car. It happened so freaking fast that even my driving instructor didn't get right away what happened. (To be fair this was his first deer accident too). There were just something flying in front of the car, getting hit and flying away to the side of the road.
It was very different from my imagination which formed during my childhood hearing adults talking about split second decisions in case of a deer appearing in front of the car.
If you ever see a deer cross in front of you, especially with a fawn in tow, slow down and be prepared to slam on the brakes because they might be preparing to jump right into your path. These kinds of accidents are especially deadly because they don't hit the bumper, they tend to smash directly into the windscreen, sometimes breaking through and crushing the front seat passengers.
I also came across a moose running across the road that cut through a forest and it never slowed down, they weave with their heads to keep the antlers from ramming into the trees in a way that is quite amazing. They run through a forest that I couldn't run through without clipping the trees and those animals are easily four times as wide.
Don't mess with moose.
In a split second they can walk in front of you before you can brake. Add wet, foggy, icy, or snowy conditions and the braking ability is even more limited.
I have no idea if this is really good advice or widely shared. I hope I never have to make that split second decision.
I was in my mid-30s the first time I saw a moose up close. It almost caused an accident between me and a logging truck. It was massive to the point of absurdity. If you've never seen one it's difficult to imagine how big they are.
This would follow the same [i-mutation](https://www.etymonline.com/columns/post/imutate?old=true) that foot, tooth, and goose do, as well as mouse and louse
Go slow, and don't use your horn. Unfortunately there is no way to avoid that road because there really are no others that aren't even worse.
Luckily I'd read enough about moose and started walking backwards, then sped up my walking as it got closer, and as soon as I rounded the bend, ran like crazy until I found part of the hill I could climb. When the moose got to where I climbed, it stopped and looked around for me. Eventually it moved on.
While the Northern European moose is smaller than the North American, we still treat it with a lot of respect if we ever come across them in nature. Especially if the moose has calves, you should steer well clear of it, because the mother will attack, and kill or maim you badly.
Sadly, being such a heavy animal – it can easily weigh a literal tonne – it’s also the source of some very serious car accidents, especially on lonely stretches of roads passing through forests, for which there is a lot of on the Scandinavian peninsula.
Being so tall, the car will hit its feet first, and then the rest of the animal will land on the bonnet and window, often crushing the driver and passengers.
Worst of all, they like to trek at dusk, or when the light is dim, so if you’re ever on a lonely, forested stretch of road during that time, you need to keep your eyes peeled. On top of that, that’s the time of day when the pelt disguises them the best against the surrounding nature, so you really must keep on your toes when driving during those hours.
Smaller deers are dangerous and you need to be careful with them. In Spain the largest deers are red deers (males over 200kg are very rare) and there are a few cases of people killed by them. Even small females are dangerous enough to kill healthy large man.
Even roe deers, which are quite small (maybe 30kg a larger male), can cause serious injuries because they are crazy agile and fast and their antlers are quite sharp. Here's a video of a man trying to feed one: https://www.club-caza.com/files/videos/Ataque-de-corzo-a-per...
Deers may not look dangerous because they are herbivorous and cute, but they are.
Good advice, and not something most people think about. As a general rule, all wild animals should be treated as dangerous and not cute and harmless. Even a baby squirrel will scratch the shit out of you. Cute little bunnies? Yeah, watch what happens when they're cornered and think they nothing left to lose. Experience says birds might be the one exception, though I've never tried to get close to an eagle. :-)
If it has claws, teeth, and doesn't live with me in my house, I treat it with a respectful distance until I have reason to believe otherwise, no matter how cute it might be.
But there are many videos of their wild African cousins destroying lions.
Suddenly rounding a corner on a semi rural forest road I saw something in the corner of my eye up ahead; I hit the brakes and then there was this massive elg crossing the road ahead of me, certainly not quite far enough away, turning its head to give me a fair bit of eye as its little ones followed.
I just sat there perfectly still for a few minutes, not giving it any reason to investigate me further - then kept going, still awestruck by what I had witnessed.
The Kangaroos and Wallabies I've come across down under whilst mountain bike riding are cool and all, but they don't hold a candle to the experience of a close encounter with a properly grown elg. Ah, the memories.
I remember pitching my tent in somewhere in the deep forests of Västra Götaland in Sweden. I had found the perfect spot with a soft, mossy surface. Little did I know that I'd get no sleep at all, due to the entire place being infested with rodents running like mad underneath before I got into real trouble.
When it started to dusk, I noticed slow thumping and the cracking of twigs beyond the small hill across the road not far from me, so I unzipped the opening and stuck my head out of the tent to see what was going on.
Then after a while, some majestic antlers crested the hill, and the biggest moose I've ever seen appeared before me. It was clearly minding its own business and having a great day. Until it saw me, that is.
It stopped dead in its tracks while ogling me. Then it snarled and sighed heavily, kind of like Sprocket - the dog in the Fraggle Rock Show - would make when fed up. It was clearly annoyed. Then it slowly turned, and trotted the other way, obviously quite irritated by having met some dumb camper.
During the night it got much worse, however. Except now it was pitch black. Suddenly I noticed the thumping again, from the same direction as earlier. And it was coming closer.
But this time, when I stuck my head out of the tent, I couldn't see anything. The night was pitch black. I couldn't even make out the stars in the sky. So, I quickly decided that it was a bad idea to light the torch. I didn’t want to become the only lighted target in all that darkness.
Meanwhile twigs were cracking. And the thumping just became louder and louder, and closer and closer. Thump.... Thump.... Crack some twigs.... Thump.... It was really slow, but also deliberate. And it was clearly headed straight for my tent, even though I couldn't see anything in the dark. For each thump the dread in me kept increasing.
At first, I tried yelling at it. This would stop the thumping for a bit, like the animal was assessing what was going on and sniffing the air for a bit. But then he just continued. So, I pulled out some pans I had and started desperately clanking them together while yelling into the night. But to no avail. The slow thumping just continued. Coming ever closer. Towards my tent. I've never felt so small and helpless in my entire life.
At some point I decided that I'd had enough, and I ran like a panicked little chicken to the car parked a few hundred metres away. Then I simply waited until I couldn't hear the thumping anymore and went back and dismantled the tent and slept in the car.
I had lost, and the King of the Forest had won.
The word "elk" in English just means a moose:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk#Naming_and_etymology
In North America there is an animal which is not a moose, but which are "for their unusual largeness improperly termed Elks by ignorant people"!
> Sadly, being such a heavy animal – it can easily weigh a literal tonne – it’s also the source of some very serious car accidents, especially on lonely stretches of roads passing through forests, for which there is a lot of on the Scandinavian peninsula.
A Swedish friend told me that if you take your driving test in northern Sweden, there is an extra section about emergency stops, precisely because of moose danger.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk#Naming_and_etymology
> In North America there is an animal which is not a moose, but which are "for their unusual largeness improperly termed Elks by ignorant people"!
I'd say at this point in time the word "elk" in English means elk, not moose, at least in North American English. The article you linked to is in fact an article about the North American species of animal called elk, or Cervus canadensis. The quotation you cite is from 1672.