Waltzing with Moose

Cow Moose Waltzing with Moose
June 23, 1995

In 1995, several friends visited our homestead. One couple, Bev and Kent, was ready to leave before the rest of us were. They hiked ahead to look at flowers. Bev was carrying her umbrella to shade her from the sun. Our dog, of course, went with them, anxious to be on the move. At one point, Bev was walking ahead of Kent. She saw a cow moose to the side of the trail and the dog began to chase it. But this moose didn't run, it charged. In Bev's words:

I saw both dog and moose quickly turn and now the moose was loping directly toward me and I realized I was in danger. Feeling fright and apprehension, what was I to do? How could a 64-year-old woman protect herself from an angry beast? Should I run or hold my ground for a moose? Two men had recently been trampled to death by moose. Was this to be my fate?

My first instinct, of course, was to run, but there was nowhere to go and I knew I could not outrun a moose. There were no trees close by, just tundra-like brush. The cabins were too far away and no one was near to hear me if I screamed.

Now the moose was within a few feet of me. I desperately wanted something, anything, between me and that animal. I lowered my open umbrella and started moving it back and forth in front of her, never thinking for a moment that an umbrella could stop a wild animal, let alone a moose. But--she did stop--about four feet in front of my face, and stood looking at me with big brown eyes. I stood there petrified, moving only the umbrella, wondering what she was about to do. She stood very tall--at least six feet, and could have weighed anywhere from 800 to 1300 pounds. I had no illusions about the effectiveness of an umbrella to protect me from her wrath.

But, as suddenly as she came, she backed off and spun around. . . .

The moose soon came back. Bev stumbled and fell to the ground at one point when she tried to back away from it. In the end she escaped unharmed, thanks to her trusty umbrella. Later, when the danger was past, we were able to joke about it. Perhaps, someone suggested, umbrellas have been underrated. Couldn't one be adorned, for instance, with the image of a large, snarling grizzly bear? How about putting pepper spray in the point?

It's unusual, but not that unusual, for moose to be aggressive unless they're protecting calves. Aggressive moose are a potential serious concern in Anchorage, where so many people live near so many moose and where children wait in the early morning darkness for school buses.